The Graduates (Stucky Edition)
by iColor With Crayons
Summary: "I'm going to kill you if we ever make it through this." Sequel of S.H.I.E.L.D. High
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of Steven Grant Rogers and James Buchanan Barnes; two young men who gave their lives in service of their country."

The graduates of S.H.I.E.L.D. High all bowed their heads. No one wanted to look up at the two coffins standing before them. They were too real. It was too difficult to accept that the coffins really belonged to a deceased Steve and a deceased Bucky.

It was five years after they had all graduated. Since that time, Steve, Bucky, Sam, Peggy (though no one really knew about Peggy's involvement - Fury wanted her as undercover as possible), Natasha, Clint, and Maria had all joined S.H.I.E.L.D., which turned out to be an intelligence agency as well as a high school. Steve and Bucky had been running a covert operation in Russia for S.H.I.E.L.D. when they had met their untimely demise. They had missed their extraction point and had not been heard from since. After a week and a half, Nick Fury had no choice but to declare them dead. Natasha had been the one forced to break the news to everyone; Peggy, Tony, and worst of all: Mrs. Barnes.

Mrs. Barnes had been surprisingly put-together throughout the whole experience. She had planned the funeral with the help of Peggy, she had insisted that every graduate coming to the funeral from out of town stay with her for the weekend, and she had even hosted Loki's every-growing herd of cats. Even when she was first told that Steve had perished alongside of Bucky, Mrs. Barnes had looked at Natasha with sad, tired eyes and said, "Well, of course he did. Those boys did everything together." There had been no crying, no resentment; just quiet acceptance.

Peggy had taken the news surprisingly well, too. Unlike Mrs. Barnes, she had shed a sizeable amount of tears, but she had not gone through the stage of denial that others had. Instead, she had just hugged Natasha and asked her how _she_ was holding up. Natasha could not believe it.

Natasha did not take the news nearly as well as Mrs. Barnes and Peggy had. When Fury had broken the news to her, she was angry. She broke his desk, shattered his windows, and blamed him for sending Steve to his death. When Fury asked her to tell everybody that Steve had died, she had fractured his wrist and nearly ripped out his good eye. Once Fury left to get his wrist and eye looked at, she had curled up under his desk and cried for about six hours. Clint had found her and brought her home sometime around three in the morning. It had taken her an additional 28 hours to compose herself just enough to break the news to everyone.

Even now, days after hearing the news, Natasha was struggling to accept that she had lost her one and only best friend. Whether she accepted it or not, though, the coffin designated to Steve was right there in front of her. It was reflecting the sunlight directly in her face while the horrible minister spoke, like Steve was actually trying to catch her attention at a time like this. He would have, too. Natasha smiled at the thought.

Steve would have absolutely _hated_ this funeral. It was so impersonal, so boring. There were no stories about the stupid things that he and Bucky had done in their lifetime, nothing about his accomplishments, no self-righteous remarks...he would have been having a fit.

Natasha sighed as the funeral finally dragged to an end. She just had to survive the reception and then she would be left to grieve on her own; assuming that Clint wouldn't try to convince her to go for dinner afterwards, of course.

* * *

Natasha had clearly been very impacted by the news of her best friend's death, Clint knew that. He had found her in a fetal position under Nick Fury's desk hours after she had heard the news. Even after he had gotten her out from under the desk, she had refused to speak for just a little longer than a day. When she finally spoke, she spoke of nothing other than Steve.

Clint knew better than to try to comfort her. She didn't need his sympathy, his pity, or his awkward attempts at consolation. She just needed time and a few carefully selected hours of solitude. Maybe he would try to take her out to dinner after the reception.

* * *

As everyone began to shuffle back to the church for the reception, Tony remained standing directly in front of Steve's grave. He glared at the headstone as though it had personally wronged him. In a way, he supposed, it had. It made the claim that Steve was dead.

"Tony, we're going to the reception." Pepper reminded him in a light voice.

Tony didn't turn around. "I'll meet you guys there."

"Do you want me to stay?" Pepper asked.

"Nah, that's alright. I, uh, I just need a minute." Tony replied with an entirely forced smile.

Pepper spared him a sympathetic smile before joining Natasha and Peggy just a few feet ahead. Tony watched her go before letting out a heavy sigh and turning to the two shiny headstones standing before him. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head.

"This wasn't how our five year reunion was supposed to go, you jackass." He murmured as he glared at Steve's headstone, "You were supposed to be alive for it. Jesus, this is just like you. You couldn't just call us up and ask to hang out like a normal guy. You had to get yourself killed and make us all sit through that Christ awful funeral. And you had to take Bucky with you. It was just so that we couldn't ask if we should call him your widow, I know it was. This is just...it's so like you, Rogers." Tony scowled and blinked rapidly in an effort to hold back the tears threatening to pour from his eyes.

It took Tony a minute or two to realize that there would be no response. He let out a huff of disbelief and shook his head. After glaring at Steve's grave for another few seconds, he squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head.

"You know I've lost people," He mumbled, his voice quivering a bit, "You know that I have, Rogers. Why'd you have to go and pull a dick move like this? This was your final revenge for all the shit I gave you about calculus, wasn't it? Well played, well played. Just...uh...well, now that you've won...could you just come back? C'mon, Steve. You can even bring your boyfriend with you. I won't even ask how it's scientifically possible. I'll just...well...I'll tell you that you're an asshole for dying in the first place, but I'll try to be nicer after that. Maybe. I don't know. Just see if you can manage that, Rogers, alright?"

Once again, there was no response. Tony wasn't looking for one anymore. He just nodded in the grave's direction and trudged up towards the church.

* * *

"I'm going to kill you if we ever make it through this." Bucky growled as he and Steve tromped through the harsh Russian terrain that they were now stranded in. Steve sighed heavily and hung his head. He knew that he should have told Bucky to stay at home for this particular mission.

"Look, it's been a little over a week. S.H.I.E.L.D. is probably looking for us. We just have to get into town. Once we get there, we can call Fury and figure out some kind of alternate extraction plan." Steve tried to reason optimistically. Bucky snorted loudly and shook his head.

"You're smarter than that, Rogers. If we walk into the town now, we'll be recognized and executed in about ten minutes tops. We're stuck out here like Napoleon's jackass army in the fucking winter."

"I'm glad you're not too cold to remember what you learned in history class."

Bucky glared at Steve. Steve let out a small laugh. Hearing Steve's laugh, Bucky's mouth curved into a smile on its own accord. Before long, the boys had dissolved into laughter despite the grave situation they found themselves in.

Steve was the first to sober up a bit. He watched Bucky with a grim smile, wondering just how he was going to get them out of Russia. He wasn't particularly worried about himself; he just had to save Bucky. Bucky couldn't suffer for Steve's mistakes.

"What if we stole a one-person plane? They're not as heavily guarded as the bigger planes and the Russians are less likely to shoot it down." Steve suggested.

Bucky looked at Steve with an amused smile. "I know you aren't great at math, but, but there's more than one of us. Unless we snuggle real close, it's going to be just you or m - no." Bucky had suddenly realized what Steve's plan entailed and seemed furious about it. "Not an option."

"Bucky," Steve tried to ration.

"No, Steve." Bucky snapped.

"We can't both make it and I'm not going to let you die out here, Buck. You've got people to go home to; you've got your mom, you've got Beast, and you've got that new girl you've been seeing, ah, Carol. Just let me do this. You can take the plane and I'll hold the crew off."

"You dipshit," Bucky snarled, "How has it never occurred to you that maybe the only person I've ever wanted to go home to is standing next to me in the middle of fucking Siberia?"

"But Buck,"

"No. We're staying together."

Steve sighed, "If you don't leave now, we're both going to die out here. We don't have any food or water."

"Great. We'll die together."

Steve glared at Bucky but decided against protesting. From the look on Bucky's face, it was clear that arguing would not do him a bit of good.

* * *

"I can't remember the last time that I was this hungry." Bucky complained just a day later.

He and Steve were propped up against a tree in the middle of the woods, both of the men clutching at their stomachs and groaning every time their stomachs growled. They had now gone roughly five days without any food. They had taken to eating the snow every once in a while, but that only satisfied their thirst. It was clear that they would not find food in the area, and without the food they needed, they would die.

"We're not going to make it much longer. Buck, are you sure that…?"

"For the last time, I am not going to eat you, Steve."

"Just offering."

Bucky snorted. "You're an idiot. Look at you, you look like shit. You'd probably taste like dirt and hair."

He was joking, of course. Steve could never look like shit; it was one of the more unfortunate things about his best friend. He always looked unfairly handsome, even when they were refugees hiding in the middle of a forest in Russia. The stubble that he didn't have the resources to shave made him look like a rugged mountain man and the hard look in his eye just added to the entire appearance. Bucky bit his tongue and forced himself to focus on the dismal landscape surrounding them.

"Yeah, well, you look great," Steve mumbled from beside him, "Actually, Bucky, if we're really going to die out here, there's something I should tell you."

Bucky's ears pricked up. He knew better than to hope for anything too serious; Steve was probably just going to come up with yet another stupid plan that would result in Bucky's safe escape and Steve's inevitable death. Either that, or he was going to say something about Peggy that would make Bucky want to die much sooner.

It should go on record that Bucky had never meant to harbor these kind of feelings for Steve. In fact, he had tried very hard not to have any type of feelings for Steve. He had tried so hard not to love him.

He had tried not to love Steve when he first met him; the idiot had licked a frozen pole on a dare and had been stuck to said pole until Bucky brought him a cup of hot water and an extra coat.

He had tried not to love Steve when they went to their fifth grade dance together; Steve had stared at a petite redhead the entire time and Bucky had been out of his mind with jealousy.

He had tried not to love Steve when they reached middle school and girls began to take an interest in the both of them; Bucky had gone on countless dates in an attempt to find a more suitable partner while Steve remained infuriatingly single.

He had tried not to love Steve when Steve's parents died within five months of each other; Steve had spent weeks at his house and had refused to sleep alone. Bucky was forced to suffer through weeks of lying next to Steve. He spent those weeks wishing that he could gather the sobbing 13 year-old up in his arms and protect him from the world's cruelty.

He had tried not to love Steve when Steve confessed that he was going to apply to S.H.I.E.L.D. High; Bucky had known that Steve would get accepted and could not bear the thought of being separated from his best friend for even an hour's time.

He had tried not to love Steve when Steve would tag along on his dates; sometimes Bucky would encourage his date to bring a friend. He liked when the girls would get so caught up in their own conversations that they forgot all about him and Steve. When the girls left them alone, it almost felt like he and Steve were on their own sort of date.

He had tried not to love Steve when Steve left for S.H.I.E.L.D. High; the stupid blond had hugged him real tight and reminded him to call often. As if Bucky could resist the temptation of talking to Steve at every available moment.

He had tried not to love Steve when he saw the way Steve looked at Peggy Carter; God, he had wished that Steve would look at him that way.

He had tried not to love Steve when Steve didn't love him; every single agonizing second of their friendship.

"B-Bucky?" Bucky couldn't tell if Steve's voice was trembling from nerves or the biting cold. He offered Steve his gloves just in case. Steve shook his head and shoved the gloves back into Bucky's hands.

"I, uh, well, I guess I might as well just say it. I didn't just ask you to come here because I didn't think that I could shut down that factory by myself. I've done missions like this all by myself for years. I was…" Steve sighed heavily, "I was selfish. I just, I thought about being out here in the middle of nowhere for a few days, maybe a few weeks…"

"Maybe forever," Bucky interjected with an almost smile.

Steve's mouth twitched slightly.

"Maybe forever…" He echoed in a borderline amused tone, "And all of the sudden it just seemed so awful; being alone, I mean. I just...I didn't want to leave you, Buck. I know it's stupid and I know you've got Carol back home, but I -"

Steve didn't get to finish his absurdly lengthy speech. He was too busy processing the fact that Bucky's lips were now on his lips and Bucky's tongue was now prodding at his tongue. Steve's eyes widened in surprise but he didn't pull away. On the contrary, he tried to pull Bucky closer despite his gloves that didn't seem to receive any kind of traction and both of their restrictively puffy winter coats.

The kiss was nothing like Bucky had dreamt it would be. It wasn't soft or sweet or gentle. It was desperate and furious and god, it was intoxicating. Bucky didn't know whether or not starvation was causing him to hallucinate and frankly, he didn't care. As far as he knew, he was kissing Steve Rogers and it was possibly the greatest moment of his entire existence. Fuck the cold and the hunger; they hardly mattered when Steve was biting at his bottom lip and trying to pull him closer still.

When Bucky's tongue ventured just a bit too far, Steve broke away with a cough and a few gasps for air. Unable to look into his best friend's wide eyes quite yet, Bucky kissed along Steve's jaw line.

"I love you," He murmured as he moved down to Steve's neck, "Fuck, I just…"

Steve shuddered; the combination of the saliva left down his jaw and neck from Bucky's mouth and the biting Russian wind was a new and not altogether unwelcome feeling.

"Love you, yeah, it's...I...when you got back from school, it was like…I knew...and...ugh..." Steve rambled to himself, the words hardly registering with Bucky. The only words that seemed to be worth a damn were "Love" and "you"; exclusively in that order. Bucky's heart felt heavy with complete adoration while his brain felt feather light with relief. Steve loved him back. He actually loved him back.

"Hm," Bucky muttered against Steve's neck, "I knew when you got your tongue frozen to that stupid pole."

"But that was ages ago," Steve remarked in a confused voice, "Weren't we only - ah!" His question evolved into a surprised exclamation as Bucky's teeth sank into his neck.

"Five, yeah," Bucky hummed, releasing Steve's skin from his teeth and kissing gently at the newly forming mark, "Ma said that you might have to get your tongue removed if you got frostbite. You have no idea how glad I am that you didn't."

"Hm, I can tell," Steve chuckled good-naturedly. He yelped when Bucky's teeth began biting at his skin again, "You sure that you're not trying to eat me?"

"I'm sure," Bucky laughed, finally removing himself from Steve's neck and sitting up a bit, "Although I should kill you for getting us stuck in this situation because you didn't have the balls to tell me how you felt while we were safe in New York."

Steve shrugged with a sheepish smile. "There were a lot of other factors…"

"Like Peggy?"

"And Carol."

"Well, maybe they can have each other."

Steve cast a dubious look in Bucky's direction. Bucky's smile faltered a bit.

"Would you have told me if we weren't gonna die?"

Steve ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Probably not."

"Coward."

"You could have told me." Steve reminded Bucky. Bucky snorted and shook his head.

"You would've shot me down."

"What? No. Why would I?"

"Well for starters, you've been in love with either Nat or Peg for the past nine years. Believe me, I've counted. Secondly, even if you weren't drooling over two gorgeous girls, you were a self-righteous prick. You would've told me that you didn't want to ruin our friendship or that you loved me too much to lose me."

"'Self-righteous prick'? When did I act self-righteous?"

"You still do, Rogers."

"Go to hell."

"I'll see you there in a few days." Bucky reminded Steve with a small smile.

Steve laughed and rolled his eyes. As he did so, something caught his attention. An adorable white rabbit was hopping through the seemingly deserted forest. Steve watched it, a small smile appearing on his face.

"Look, a rabbit! It's been ages since I've seen an animal; it kind of reminds me of the one that Darcy and Loki adopted a few years ago."

"Steve," Bucky's voice had grown low and deadly, "hand me that rock."

"Why?" Steve questioned suspiciously.

"The rock, Steve." Bucky insisted.

With some hesitation, Steve pushed the big rock sitting next to him in Bucky's direction. A few minutes later, the two men were standing over the body of a dead and no longer very white rabbit. Steve looked at Bucky sadly.

"It was a really cute rabbit." The blond sulked.

"I know," Bucky agreed as he ducked down to dress the rabbit as best he could given their circumstance, "but it was either kill it or starve." He noticed the look on Steve's face. "You don't love me anymore, do you?"

Steve rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed huff. "Buck, I've watched you throw up in my mailbox after eating too much pizza. I'm used to loving you in spite of unsettling situations."

"You loved me even back then?" Bucky asked with a small smile.

Steve shrugged. "I don't really know. It's hard to tell when it started. All I know is that I love you now."

"That's all I need to know," Bucky declared.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi again! So _APPARENTLY_ there are quite a few of you who ship Steggy and are not thrilled that the sequel took a turn for the Stucky. Here's the basic rundown of what happened and what's going to happen in regards to that: When I asked what people wanted from a sequel, the most frequent response was 'Stucky'. I didn't hear a word about Steggy, so I assumed that there was only one way to proceed. Evidently, that was incorrect.**

**I am going to proceed with this story as Stucky. I like it, I like writing it, it's all good. Once I am done with this story, I'll write yet another one for this series. It'll be yet another sequel to S.H.I.E.L.D. High, but it will be pure, unadulterated Steggy. That way, you can choose which ending you like best based off of your ship. Everybody wins. **

**Okay? Okay. And now for chapter two~~**

Steve and Bucky managed to survive in the Siberian wilderness for about two additional years. They fell into a strange domestic pattern in which Bucky would hunt down some kind of food to kill with a rock while Steve found shelter, the occasional plant to eat, and tall trees to accidentally fall out of. He had broken his arm three times since they had missed their extraction plan; somehow it had managed to heal each of those times.

Due to the lack of razors, shampoo, soap, and fresh clothing, they both looked a bit like Darcy's drunk uncle that she swore wasn't homeless. Bucky's hair seemed to grow twice as fast as Steve's, but Steve seemed to be outgrowing his clothes faster than was perhaps possible. They didn't smell great, given the fact that their only way of bathing was in a nearby stream (or with snow when the severe winter rolled around), but they were relatively comfortable and happy. After all, they still had each other.

"So, what'd you make for me tonight?" Steve questioned as Bucky struggled to keep a fire going underneath whatever kind of meat he was attempting to cook.

Bucky spared Steve a small smile. "Better if you don't know."

Steve nodded, not pressing the point any further. The last time he insisted on knowing what Bucky was cooking, he was informed that Bucky had gone back for the cute turtle friend that Steve had made while washing his clothes in a nearby river.

"It's a stray cat he found wandering just outside of town." A startlingly familiar voice explained from behind them.

Steve and Bucky whipped around so fast that the aforementioned stray cat fell directly onto the fire and smothered it.

"Nat?" Steve demanded incredulously.

"Hey, Rogers. You look...um...well, you're not dead." Natasha remarked, eying Steve with an amused smile.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Bucky questioned, his eyes widened in shock.

"I'm here to take you boys home."

"How did you know that we were here?" Steve asked.

Natasha snorted. "Barton was running a follow-up mission on the factory shut-down that you two covered and saw you guys on his way to his extraction point."

"What the hell did he leave us here for?" Bucky demanded.

"Well, he said that when he saw you, you two looked very," Natasha gave an amused and meaningful cough, "happy. Anyway, he thought that he would leave you two alone for a little while; save you from entering the real and complicated world. We were only going to give you a few weeks before bringing you back, but in all honesty, everything sort of became a blur after that. Tony got kidnapped by some terrorists who wanted him to build weapons, Thor and Loki destroyed an entire town in New Mexico, and this crazy military general was chasing Bruce all over the globe. You know how those things can be."

"Of course." Bucky responded sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Is everyone alright?" Steve asked.

Natasha shrugged. "Mostly. Tony's a little bit off of his rocker - although that might have to do with the fact that he thinks you're dead - and Loki pissed off an entire alien race that threatened to destroy the Earth. Other than that though, things are great."

"He thinks we're dead? Why would he think that?" Steve inquired.

"Everyone does. S.H.I.E.L.D. had to declare you dead after you were gone for a few weeks; that's how it works. We only realized that you were alive a few months ago and we didn't tell Nick until yesterday." Natasha responded.

"And now aliens are trying to kill everybody?" Steve clarified.

"Well, just the Earth." Natasha answered with a small shrug.

"Just the Earth." Steve and Bucky mimicked to each other in falsified casual tones.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "If you lovers are done, I really have to get you back to New York. With this whole alien invasion looming over our heads, we need all the help we can get. Besides, I want to see the look on Tony's face when he sees that you're alive."

"You're an evil woman, Romanov." Bucky murmured as he and Steve stood up to follow Natasha a bit farther into the woods.

"And don't you forget it, Barnes." Natasha agreed with a laugh.

* * *

The flight back to New York was insanely long, as Bucky supposed should be expected. Natasha had commandeered a S.H.I.E.L.D. plane with sort-of permission from Nick Fury, which meant that they had to stop far more for gasoline than a commercial plane but managed to cross all kinds of borders without going through customs. Either way, it took about two days to reach New York again. Natasha and Steve took turns flying the plane.

Bucky spent the entire flight staring at Steve and thinking about how strange returning to New York would be. He would have to tell his mom about him and Steve; she would likely begin planning their wedding the moment she heard. Steve would have to tell Peggy; she would likely begin planning Bucky's funeral the moment she heard.

It wasn't that Peggy was a particularly unfair or wrathful person. On the contrary, she had dealt with Steve and Bucky's exceptionally close friendship far better than any of Bucky's ex-girlfriends had. Still, she would have to be insane to accept the news of Steve and Bucky's new relationship without feeling even a bit angry.

Unless Steve didn't tell Peggy about him and Bucky. Steve only confessed his feelings for Bucky when he thought that all hope was lost. Now that they were returning to their old life in New York, Steve might have a change of heart. He might choose Peggy and ask Bucky to just be friends again. Bucky's heart sank down to his feet at the thought.

No, He assured himself, Steve wouldn't do that. Steve loved him. He had said so himself and Steve never lied. At least, Steve had never lied to him.

"You alright, Buck?" Steve questioned, noticing the distant look on Bucky's face.

Bucky swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm fine. It's just weird, you know. Getting back to New York."

"Yeah, I know." Steve agreed with a small smile.

"I'm sorry about interrupting your Brokeback Mountain experience," Natasha called from the cockpit, "Really am."

"Shut up, Nat." Steve chuckled, sparing Bucky one last red-faced smile before getting up and approaching the cockpit.

Steve blushing was certainly not a good sign. Steve only blushed when he was embarrassed; he must have been embarrassed by Natasha's good-natured teasing. Was he embarrassed of Bucky? That certainly didn't bode well for Bucky, especially when the Steve/Peggy reunion was approaching so quickly.

Bucky was nearly hyperventilating by the time he, Steve, and Natasha had reached New York. Steve was going to leave him for Peggy; Bucky could see no alternate ending to their return. Steve would see Peggy, realize that Bucky had just been an impulsive thing that he needed to get out of his system while stranded abroad, and would beg Peggy to forgive him. Bucky, meanwhile, would be left with nothing to do but pine over his best friend for an additional twenty years.

* * *

"You're the biggest idiot in the entire fucking universe."

"I think you may be exaggerating a bit."

"Am I? And what about the aliens trying to attack the Earth? Are they exaggerating, too?"

Loki sighed. He and Darcy had been engaged in the same argument for days; ever since he had hesitantly informed her of Earth's imminent threat, she had been impossible to live with. It was as though she considered Loki responsible for the entire situation.

Of course, the very second that Darcy heard the news, she had insisted on telling Jane. Jane told Thor, Thor told Nick Fury, and suddenly S.H.I.E.L.D. became involved. Loki and Darcy had been shepherded into Stark Towers along with the rest of the S.H.I.E.L.D. High students they had graduated alongside of. Loki and Darcy's former classmates did not seem to enjoy the change in venue any more than they did, but everyone followed one rule in Stark Towers: when Loki and Darcy got into an argument, that entire wing of the mansion was to be avoided at all costs.

"Were you not present when Fury drew up plans to protect your precious Earth? You are well cared for. I cannot understand why you are insisting on discussing this further."

"Because I live here, you jackass. Besides, I'm not really counting on Tony, Sam, and your brother to save the world. They have other things to do besides patching up every single mistake that you make; like figuring out how to get their heads out of their asses."

Loki snorted appreciatively. Darcy glowered at him in a way that let him know that it was not the greatest time to join her in making fun of Thor and his ridiculous comrades.

"Why did you even have to go to that stupid battle with your stupid dad?" Darcy demanded irritably.

"Is now really the time to discuss my relationships with my father?"

Darcy rolled her eyes and let out an annoyed huff. "Oh, god, no. I just, ugh! Why couldn't you have just stayed home that weekend? The super bowl was on, I made snacks...it would have been just as good as a battle on a rebelling planet."

"I would fight a thousand battles before I would endure another football game anywhere near you. You are aware that your voice reaches unfathomable decibels, are you not?"

"I am. You still should have stayed. A little yelling never hurt and last I checked, I never declared an intergalactic war on anyone."

Loki folded his arms and quirked an eyebrow. Darcy rolled her eyes.

"Okay, but that was only one time and it was really all Sif's fault." Darcy protested.

"Of course it was," Loki agreed patronizingly, "She is the less experienced one when it comes to warfare. Regardless, if you truly feel that my brother and Tony Stark are unable to protect you, I will purchase another taser. Surely you will be able to defend yourself so long as you have your prefered weapon?"

"Are you kidding? A taser against an entire alien army? You've got to be -"

Darcy's next argument was cut short as two dirty and scraggly men were led into the room by Natasha. Darcy and Loki both stared at the men curiously. Loki wondered if these men had any information on the Earth's potential invaders. Darcy wondered if Natasha was letting homeless people into Stark Towers just to fuck with Tony.

Suddenly one of the homeless men looked beyond Loki and Darcy and smiled. More than that, he positively glowed. The other homeless guy seemed to know exactly what had caused his pal's excitement and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Apple pie!" The first homeless man exclaimed, dashing past Darcy and Loki in the direction of the pie cooling on the counter. The second homeless man hung his head before trudging over to the counter to join his homeless companion.

Darcy's eyes immediately widened. While Loki murmured some kind of inquiry to Natasha, Darcy was staring at the first homeless man as though she had reached some sort of an epiphany. Only he wasn't a homeless man and Darcy hadn't reached an epiphany. She had just realized how terrible she was at recognizing old friends.

"Steve!"

"Yeah?" The first homeless man - Steve Rogers - looked up from where he was shoveling apple pie into his mouth with his bare hands. From the looks of it, at least half of the pie was going directly into his unkempt beard. Darcy decided not to focus on that particular detail.

"But you're...you're dead." Darcy reminded him, her eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

"Nope." Steve grinned before returning his attention to the pie.

"Jesus Steve, you're burning yourself. Look at your hands - they're bright red. You're going to have blisters all over your mouth if you don't slow down." The second homeless man scolded.

"Bucky?" Loki inquired, recognizing the stern tone before Darcy had a chance to guess.

"Guilty as charged." Bucky responded with a slight smile. He then shifted his attention back to trying to bat Steve's hands away from the smoldering pie.

"They're supposed to be dead." Darcy reminded Natasha as they watched the scruffy men bicker over pie.

Natasha shrugged. "They've never been particularly good about following expectations. What made you think that they would start now?"

"Natasha, who did you just bring into my house? What did I tell you about bringing strangers into my house?" Tony growled irritably, storming into the room with a comically angry look on his face.

"I think you're overreacting a little, Stark. Jeez, you miss one high school reunion and suddenly you're a stranger." Steve objected, his voice muffled by the large amount of pie burning his mouth. Bucky sighed and rolled his eyes.

Tony froze. He looked from Steve to Bucky, then from Bucky to Darcy, and finally, from Darcy to Natasha. His gaze then flicked back to Steve. His eyes lit up with sudden understanding.

"You dickhead!" Tony hollered, taking five steps across the room just to knock the pie right out of Steve's hands.

"Hey!" Steve protested.

"We all thought you were dead, dickweed." Tony informed him, ignoring the pout that was forming on Steve's face.

"To be fair, we thought that we were going to die." Bucky interjected with a small shrug.

"I'll get to you later." Tony snapped, glaring at Bucky for a moment before returning his attention to Steve. Bucky and Steve exchanged bemused stares.

"Why do you look like that?" Tony demanded, gesturing towards Steve's shaggy beard.

Steve chuckled. "We didn't exactly have access to barbers and showers while we were stranded in Russia. What's your excuse?"

"Very funny. Are you injured?" Tony questioned, looking Steve over thoughtfully.

"Nope. I've never been better." Steve replied.

"Yeah, but that's not saying much." Bucky cut in.

"I don't believe you." Tony said, largely ignoring Bucky.

"Tony, why would I hide an injury? I'm fine. I'd be better if I still had apple pie, but I'm still okay." Steve insisted.

"Come with me." Tony demanded.

"Why?" Steve asked.

"I'm going to check you out." Tony explained.

"Uh, Tony, look...I know that we were sort of close during graduation week, but I don't really think…"

Tony snorted and rolled his eyes. "I'm not trying to seduce you, Rogers, I'm just trying to make sure that you don't die before the aliens show up. You know about that, right? We're going to need all the help we can get."

"I thought you said that they wouldn't be a problem!" Darcy whined from across the room. Tony and Loki rolled their eyes in unison.

"And they won't, now that we've got Rogers on our team. Now come on, Steve. JARVIS will run a scan on you down in the lab. Bruce'll probably want to say hi to you, anyway." Tony insisted, grabbing Steve's arm and dragging him in the direction of his lab. Steve followed with an amused smile. Bucky trailed after them with a much less amused frown.

Once the trio was downstairs in the lab, Tony dragged Steve across the lab to talk to Bruce. Bruce insisted on taking blood samples from Steve and wrote down everything that the blond mentioned about his trip. Apparently Bruce was extremely interested in Russian wildlife. Bucky remained entirely forgotten.

After about a half an hour of chatting and running tests on Steve's blood samples, Tony decided that he had shared Steve for too long. He then grabbed the obliging blond's arm and dragged him in the direction of the new super suits that he had been working on. Bucky followed after them, wondering if he would use his newfound invisibility for good or evil.

"These are great, Tony. Really, I don't know how you think of these things." Steve remarked as they walked through a hall of about seventy metal suits. Bucky rolled his eyes and wished that he and Steve were back in Russia.

"I'm a genius." Tony reminded him in a patronizing tone.

"I'm a genius." Bucky mimicked in a ridiculing tone. Neither Steve nor Tony noticed.

"Hey Tony, why is Darcy beating Loki with a spatula? Did they get into another fight?" Pepper's voice called from the top of the stairs leading down to the lab.

"Huh? Oh, I don't know. They're always fighting." Tony murmured absent-mindedly before resuming his and Steve's tour of the lab.

There was suddenly the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Not just one pair of footsteps, either; there were at least two people coming down to the lab.

"She's probably still a bit angry about the aliens coming to kill us all." A hauntingly familiar British voice joked from the same direction that Pepper's voice had emerged.

Bucky froze in his tracks. It was one thing for Tony to demand Steve's attention and dance around him like an excited puppy, but Peggy Carter was a whole different matter. Peggy Carter wouldn't have to demand Steve's attention; he would surrender it eagerly.

Bucky turned to look at Steve desperately. Steve seemed to be in shock. All of his visible muscles were tensed, his mouth was pulled in a tight line, and his eyes were wide and fixed in the direction that Peggy's voice had come from. Bucky was fairly certain that Steve didn't even remember that he existed at the moment.

Pepper came into view first. When she did, she cast Steve and Bucky a funny look, not quite recognizing the pair. Bucky could only hope that Peggy wouldn't recognize Steve, either.

No dice.

Peggy entered the room just three and a half seconds after Pepper. Bucky had counted. He also recognized just how amazing Peggy Carter looked. It seemed that she had somehow managed to get even prettier in the past two years. Just his luck. He wasn't optimistic enough to hope that Steve hadn't noticed.

Peggy recognized Steve instantly. Her eyes lit up and her jaw went slack. She stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds. Steve stared back at her with wide eyes.

"What's going on? Peggy, what's wrong? Tony, who are these guys?" Pepper asked, looking around the room in confusion.

"Steve?" Peggy whispered, her voice cracking a little. Steve nodded, unable to say anything in return.

"Natasha found them in the middle of Russia and decided that they might help us fight off the aliens that Loki managed to attract." Tony explained with a proud grin, as though he had been the one to find Steve and Bucky.

"Oh my god!" Peggy cried, rushing forward and wrapping her arms around Steve's neck. Bucky cringed as Peggy buried her face against the side of Steve's neck.

"Hey, Peg." Steve finally choked out, wrapping his arms around Peggy's waist. Bucky looked around the lab for an object to kill himself with.

"It's been so long," Peggy blubbered, "So long."

"Yeah; I'm sorry about that. I missed my ride." Steve explained sheepishly.

"You should have just called me. I would have gotten you out of there in no time." Tony commented with a stern look.

"Didn't really have my phone with me." Steve chuckled, running a hand through Peggy's hair. She still hadn't let go of him. Bucky was eying a crowbar and debating whether or not it would be worth it to pry Peggy off of Steve by force. Steve would be angry, but at least he would be angry without a British girl clinging to him.

"What happened? We all thought that you were dead!" Peggy exclaimed, finally removing her face from Steve's shoulder, "I want to hear everything, every single bit of it."

Bucky just barely stifled a groan.

"Yeah, definitely. Uh, well, you know that that we were going into Russia to shut down a factory. After that, we missed our extraction point because of some sniper on our tail…"

Bucky couldn't sit through this; he just couldn't. The way Steve was looking at Peggy, the way Peggy was looking at Steve, the way nobody was looking at Bucky...it was absolute misery. With one last wistful look in Steve's direction, Bucky trudged past the group of people and up the stairs leading to the main floor.

"...And after that, we just kind of started figuring out how to live on our own. It's not so bad once you get used to it." Steve finished his lengthy explanation of his and Bucky's two-year experience in Russia with a small smile.

Peggy cast him a knowing look.

"Bucky did all of the hunting." Steve admitted with a sheepish smile.

"A-ha." Peggy allowed with a laugh.

"Speaking of hunting, I see that you hunted down a husband." Steve remarked, nodding towards the imposing ring on Peggy's finger. Peggy looked down at the ring and blushed.

"Oh...right...I was going to tell you, but…"

"Hey, don't worry about it," Steve waved off Peggy's apologetic explanation, "I was gone for two years and you thought I was dead. I didn't really expect you to wait for me. I didn't want you to wait for me. I just want you to be happy. You know that. Besides, Bucky and I are actually…" Steve turned around to look at Bucky and was surprised to see that he was gone.

"I knew it!" Tony exclaimed triumphantly. Peggy and Pepper both rolled their eyes at Tony.

"Hang on. Where's Bucky? He was just here a minute ago." Steve murmured, walking around the lab in an effort to locate his missing boyfriend.

"Bucky? He went upstairs a while ago." Bruce commented from the other end of the lab, looking up from where he was cleaning out test tubes that had previously contained Steve's blood.

"Huh. Maybe he's showering. I guess I'd better do that, too." Steve mumbled, his eyebrows furrowing as he approached the stairs.

"Yeah you had, you dog." Tony agreed, waggling his eyebrows.

Steve let out a heavy sigh but decided against commenting on Tony's innuendo. It would only waste time.

He rushed up the stairs and found Natasha and Clint sprawled on the couch by the entrance to the stairs.

"Hey, uh, have you guys seen Bucky?" Steve asked, trying his best to sound nonchalant. Natasha gave him a strange look.

"Yeah, he went out a little while ago. He didn't say where; he looked a little bit out of it. Are you two okay?" She asked in a concerned and borderline motherly tone.

"Yeah, yeah, we're fine," Steve rasped, a massive lump suddenly appearing in his throat, "I, uh, I'm just going to go…" He didn't bother coming up with an excuse as he bolted for the door.

Why had Bucky run off without saying anything? He had been quiet during Tony's tour, but he hadn't run off until Peggy had...oh. Oh no.

He was jealous of Peggy. Bucky Barnes was actually jealous.

"Bucky!" Steve caught a glimpse of him milling around a bus station and rushed over. Bucky looked less than thrilled by Steve's company.

"Go away, Steve."

"What? Why?"

"Because I know you would rather be in there with Peggy and Tony and I really don't want your charity right now." Bucky snapped, sparing Steve an accusatory glare before scowling down at the ground.

"My charity? What the hell are you talking about, Buck?" Steve demanded, folding his arms across his chest and frowning at Bucky.

"Look, I know that this is all great for you; being back and being surrounded by tons of people who love you. I get it - you've missed it. But I haven't. The only reason any of those people put up with me is because they know that I'd follow you anywhere. I don't matter to anyone, not the way you do."

"That's not true -"

"Oh, really? It's not? Did you conveniently forget that no one said anything to me about being back? They just kind of assumed that since the great Steve Rogers was back, I was bound to tag along. Even Peggy - god, well, she didn't even know I was on the face of the earth. She was too busy making you fall in love with her again."

"I don't -"

"Save it, Steve. I know you love her. You love all of them. I don't really blame you. It looks great to have a group of people that care about you so much. I just can't stand in the background and wait until you notice me again. I get that you care about me to some degree, Steve, I really do. That's just not enough."

"Don't do this, Buck."

"It's alright," Bucky murmured in a tone that made him almost believe his own lie, "it's probably better this way. When we were out there in Russia...well, you just needed to get something out of your system and I was willing to take anything you'd give me. Now we're back and everything is back to normal again. I get it. Anyway, I, uh, well, I think I'm going to go home. Ma's probably worried about me and -"

Bucky was cut off by Steve taking hold of his arm and all but dragging him away from the bus stop.

"What the fuck?" Bucky demanded, wrenching his arm out of Steve's grasp.

"I could ask you the same thing," Steve snapped angrily, "Is that what you really think of me? You think that I just told you I loved you because you happened to be the only person around at the time? Because I needed to get something out of my system?"

Bucky jutted out his chin and stared at Steve defiantly.

"Fuck you, Barnes. You've got a lot of nerve telling me how I do and don't feel when it took you twenty fucking years to figure out how you felt."

Bucky shoved Steve back a few steps. "I knew exactly how I felt, Rogers. Every single second of every single day for twenty years I knew how I felt. Even when I was in that fucking hospital and couldn't remember my own name, I knew how I felt. Do you know what that's like? Loving someone that you know will never love you back? No, of course you don't. Everybody loves you." Bucky shook his head with a grim smile, "It's miserable, Steve. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy."

Steve's face was flushed with anger. "'Someone who you know will never love you back'? Bucky, you know I love you. I've told you hundreds of times that I love you. What else do you want me to do? Write it in the sky? Come up with some bullshit poem? Light myself on fire to prove it? I don't know what you want from me, Bucky. I love you. That's it."

"No, you love Peggy." Bucky reminded him coldly.

Steve's face became unreadable. Bucky shifted on his feet uncomfortably, not quite sure of what to expect from his best friend. He was beginning to notice the crowd gathering to watch their fight and was slightly relieved that there would be witnesses to whatever was about to happen.

"Is that why you're saying all of this? Because of Peggy?" Steve demanded in a low voice.

Bucky swallowed hard. "I mean...not exactly...I just, I saw you guys, and, well, I knew that…"

"Shut up." Steve snarled. "Just shut up. You don't know anything. Yes, I love Peggy. Are you happy? I love her and I always will. But damn it Buck, I'min love with you. I don't want Peggy, I don't want Tony; I just want you."

Bucky glared up at Steve. Steve glared down at Bucky.

"You're a punk."

A relieved smile broke across Steve's face. "Jerk."

Bucky smiled hesitantly.

"Now, will you please come back to the tower? We've kind of got a crowd gathering." Steve remarked, glancing around at the group of people milling around the area.

"I don't know Steve...I just, I don't really belong there. Not the way you do."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Yes, you do. I don't know where you got the idea that you're less important than those guys. You're the only one I really want in that Tower."

"You can't blame me for doubting that," Bucky reminded Steve in an apologetic tone, "Before we got stranded, you wanted everyone but me. Now we're back and you're not stuck with me."

"Maybe not, but you're stuck with me." Steve replied forcefully, "I've already told you; I want you. Just you, no one else. If you think that going back to Russia will make things easier, I'll pack my bags tonight. I'm not going to fight this alien army with those guys if it means losing you."

Bucky let out a small sigh.

"Alright."

"Alright?" Steve echoed in confusion.

"Alright." Bucky clarified, his eyebrows furrowing.

"You don't...you're not going to say anything else?" Steve asked.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I, uh, I'm not sure." Steve answered with a sheepish smile.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "We can't all be as dramatic as you, Rogers. C'mon, let's get back to the tower. I think I see a few news cameras across the street."

Smiling up at his relieved beau, Bucky laced his fingers through Steve's and walked towards the tower. Steve beamed down at Bucky as though Bucky was his most prized posession.

* * *

Steve and Bucky - now freshly showered and shaved - appeared in the kitchen just in time to see that Maria Hill - now an employee of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s - was handing out thick files to everyone sitting around the kitchen table.

"What's all this?" Steve asked, glancing at Natasha inquisitively.

"A briefing. Here." Maria answered, handing Steve and Bucky each a thick file and gesturing for them to take a seat.

"Is this still about the alien thing?" Bucky whispered as he flipped through his file.

"It is a pretty big problem." Sam Wilson whispered back from across the table.

Poor Sam had arrived at Stark Towers while Steve and Bucky were getting cleaned up. Nobody had thought to tell him that Steve and Bucky were still alive; he had just seen them screaming at each other on the news. Like everyone else, he had thought that they were just two homeless people until he saw that way that Bucky looked at Steve. He couldn't have mistaken them for anyone else after that. He would have known that look anywhere.

"Hey, Sam." Steve chuckled, nodding Sam's direction.

"Hey, Cap." Sam countered with a wide smile.

Thor, Rhodey, and Jane were also shocked to see Steve and Bucky alive and seated at the table near them. Unlike Sam, they had not seen the two men arguing on TV. They had all just received messages from Tony asking them to show up at the tower for an important briefing. None of them seemed to know quite what to say about the situation.

"Boys. Focus." Maria sighed, sparing both Steve and Sam a stern look before looking around at the rest of the occupants of the room. "I need all of you to read over these files tonight. Training and planning starts tomorrow."

"Stephen...you are well?" Thor asked hesitantly, completely ignoring Maria's words. Maria let out a loud sigh.

"Yeah, thanks," Steve replied, nodding emphatically, "The whole death thing was just a misunderstanding. We, ah, we just got a little bit lost."

"You wouldn't have gotten lost if you had one of my suits with you. The things have a GPS and a top-of-the-line communication system. You know, I should get you outfitted for one. Come on. I already know everything in the file, anyway."

"Wait, hang on. I want to hear more about Russia. How did you guys get by for two years?" Rhodey interjected, focusing on Steve as if he was expecting an incredibly difficult explanation. Sam nodded and leaned forward in his seat.

"No, wait, I think that we should get a turn hearing what happened. You all already knew that he was alive!" Jane objected indignantly.

The entire table began to argue over who would be the recipient of Steve's attention first. Maria had completely given up on trying to brief the makeshift team on the imminent alien invasion. Bucky slumped in his seat next to Steve and sulked.

Steve glanced at Bucky and immediately noticed the sulky look spread across his face. The blond's mouth curved into a smile.

"Actually," He interjected loudly, "I think that Bucky and I are going to get some rest. I think that we, ah, we both need some recovery time. We'll take a look at the file, thanks Maria."

Bucky looked at Steve in surprise. They exchanged bright smiles. Tony and Sam exchanged smirks and pretended to gag. The rest of the table rolled their eyes and tried their best to ignore Tony and Sam.

Starry eyed and thrilled by the prospect of alone time with Steve, Bucky leapt out of his chair and impatiently waited for Steve to do the same. To his surprise, Peggy stood up as well.

"Actually Bucky, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a word with you before you two...disappear." She stated in a hesitant voice. Steve and Bucky exchanged surprised glances.

Bucky didn't know what Peggy wanted with him, but whatever it was, he had a feeling that it couldn't be good. She was Steve's ex-girlfriend, after all. He looked at Steve for any kind of indication or opinion. Steve shrugged, looking thoroughly baffled. Bucky rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Yeah, okay," He agreed reluctantly. Whatever Peggy had to say to him, it couldn't matter that much. Steve had chosen him, after all.

"Great, then you have a few minutes to talk to me, Steve." Natasha chimed in, affording Steve a genuine smile that had become a rare sight around Stark Towers.

"Uh, yeah, of course." Steve agreed, still looking a bit confused.

The men were promptly led in different directions: Peggy dragged Bucky out onto the balcony while Natasha guided Steve towards the living room. The men dragged their feet as they moved, obviously disliking the idea of being apart after spending nearly two years as an inseparable force.

* * *

"What's going on back there?" Steve asked as Pepper and Tony's voices rose and fell from the kitchen behind them. He hoped that simple questions about their friends would serve as an adequate icebreaker. In all honesty, he had no idea how to talk to Natasha anymore.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "They're always fighting. They broke up a few months after you and Bucky's 'funeral' and haven't stopped arguing since."

"They broke up?" Steve was surprised by the news. He had always imagined that if any of his friends were to break up, it would be Darcy and Loki. They just seemed doomed from the start. "What happened?"

Natasha looked extremely uncomfortable. "It was a build-up of things, really. You know, lots of pent-up stuff from his parents dying, things with the company got out of hand, Tony was almost never home...anyway. That's not really important. How are you?"

Steve was a bit thrown by the question. It had been a while since anyone had asked him how he was. Bucky had always known how he was while they were in Russia and no one had thought to check once they got back. Steve's eyes shifted to the ground as he thought about the question.

"I'm good," He answered slowly, "It's a lot warmer here than it is in the middle of the woods. The food's a lot better, too. How are you?"

Natasha smirked a bit. "Let me try that again: Steve, are you okay?"

"What do you mean?" Steve asked, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair nervously.

"I mean, are you okay? I know that this is probably a lot for you. And you and Bucky's...um...whatever it is that you have going on, there."

"Yeah, of course, I'm fine. Why would you even ask?"

Natasha smiled slightly. "For starters, you're doing the nervous hair thing."

Steve removed his hand from his hair and scowled. "What nervous hair thing?"

"Oh, please. Don't insult my intelligence. We might not have seen each other in two years, but I still know all of your nervous ticks. You're worried about something. What is it?"

Steve smiled slightly. He had missed Natasha. She had always been much more insightful than the rest of his friends, even Bucky.

"It's just different," He admitted sheepishly, "Peggy's married, Tony and Pepper are fighting, aliens are invading the world...I feel like I just sort of lost my place. Buck's really feeling it, too. I don't know, I just…maybe we would've been better off just staying in Russia."

"You would rather live in the middle of a forest in Russia than deal with your friends and their adult relationships?" Natasha questioned dubiously.

"Yeah, I guess I would." Steve confessed with a laugh.

"Oh, grow up." Natasha scolded with a laugh of her own, "You're going to have to grow thicker skin if you're going to live in Stark Towers. Let me just tell you about all of the characters that Tony has coming in and out at all hours of the night…"

* * *

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Bucky asked nervously, shoving his hands in his pockets and watching Peggy cautiously. Peggy smiled back at him.

"You don't like me very much, do you?" She questioned in return.

Bucky blinked. He couldn't say that he disliked Peggy; he liked her a lot, as it happened. She was bright, she was funny, she was fiercely loyal, and she was stronger than even Steve at times. She was one of the best people that Bucky had met to date. No, he didn't dislike her at all. He just worried about her.

"What? I, uh…"

"It's okay. I won't tell Steve." Peggy assured him with an understanding smile. Bucky raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't dislike you," He remarked, still eying her inquisitively, "Why would you think that…?"

"I saw the look on your face when we were all in Tony's lab. You didn't exactly look thrilled to see me." Peggy explained with a knowing smile.

Bucky quirked a small smile. "So you noticed me, huh? Didn't think anybody had. Look, it has nothing to do with you. Being back in a world where I have to compete for Steve's attention...it's just going to take some getting used to, again."

"Compete for Steve's attention?" Peggy let out a laugh. "What makes you think that you have ever had to compete for Steve's attention?"

Bucky looked at Peggy like she had lost her mind. "Where have you been? You know what it's like; everyone is climbing all over each other to get Steve to look at them. Back in Russia, I had him all to myself. Now that we're back...well...I've got to wait my turn and hope that he notices I'm still alive."

Peggy stared back at Bucky for a moment before dissolving into giggles. Bucky couldn't help but feel offended as Steve's ex-girlfriend leaned against the balcony wall in order to remain upright while cackling at an impressive - and slightly alarming - volume. Peggy eventually noticed the offended look on Bucky's face and did her best to bite back any residual giggles.

"Bucky," She said, laughing against her will, "You can't really believe that."

"Why not?" Bucky demanded in a much sulkier tone than he had intended.

"Oh my god, you really do believe it!" Peggy couldn't stifle another round of laughter, "Oh, Bucky!"

"What?" Bucky persisted, sounding much closer to a petulant child than a grown man being teased by another grown man's ex-girlfriend.

"The only reason that everyone tries so hard to get Steve's attention is because it's always on you. It takes something truly extraordinary to get him to take his eyes off of you. It's always been the case, I'm afraid."

"What?"

"Of course you never noticed," Peggy sighed and rolled her eyes, still smiling slightly. "You two are just alike, you know. Neither of you have any idea how much you mean to one another. Next time you're around Steve, watch him a bit closer. He can't keep his eyes away from you for longer than ten seconds at a time."

"Why are you...I mean, why should you?" Bucky didn't exactly know how to phrase his question. Peggy understood anyway.

"Honestly, do you two notice anything? I'm married," Peggy flashed her ring in front of Bucky's eyes, "The very last thing that you need to worry about is me and Steve."

"Married?" Bucky echoed incredulously, his eyes following Peggy's ring as her hand fell to her side once more, "How did you, what did you...when did you?"

"You didn't socialize very much in Russia, did you?" Peggy asked with an amused smile.

"Not with anyone other than Steve," Bucky admitted sheepishly, "It wasn't so bad. Anyway, stop trying to change the subject. When did you get married? Who did you marry? Do we know them?"

"No, you don't know him. I met him through Tony, actually. His name is Edwin." Peggy explained with a small smile.

"British name for a British girl; makes sense. Is he here?" Bucky asked, glancing around as though he expected Peggy's husband to materialize on the balcony.

"No," Peggy replied, "His work keeps him busy."

Bucky could tell from the smile on Peggy's face that she wasn't telling him the whole story, but that was okay. She was happy and Steve was his. That was all that really mattered.

"Well, I'm happy for you, Peg."

"I know."

The pair exchanged small smiles that didn't really do their feelings justice. Bucky wanted to sit down and tell Peggy everything that had happened in Russia. He wanted to apologize for resenting her for the past however many years. He wanted to get to know Peggy, now that he had no senseless disdain for her.

"I suppose you had better get back inside. Steve is probably bouncing off of the walls without having you nearby." Peggy finally announced, smirking in the direction of the balcony door.

Bucky nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right," He spared Peggy a grateful smile, "It's good to see you again, Peggy."

"Glad to have you back, Barnes."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"So, what's the plan?" Darcy asked over breakfast the next morning, just barely concealing a yawn as she took a muffin off of Loki's plate. Loki glared at her, but seemed to decide against commenting on his stolen muffin.

"We went over it last night, Darcy." Rhodey reminded her, rolling his eyes.

"I'll tell you." Sam declared loudly from across the table, "Banner and Rhodey figured out that the aliens are most likely to attack in Japan. That's where the most people are or whatever. Once we get to Japan, you, me, Rhodey, Nat, Peggy, and Loki will be in charge of keeping civilians safe and out of the way of any combat that could happen. Pepper, Maria, and Jane are in charge of logistics, like yelling at anyone that's about to get attacked or something. The rest of those guys are going to beat the shit out of any aliens that set foot on Earth."

"Wait, I thought that I was helping out with logistics." Bruce remarked, looking around the table expectantly.

Rhodey, Peggy, and Natasha exchanged guilty expressions. Everybody else watched them nervously.

"We just thought that maybe…" Peggy started softly.

"We don't know what we're up against. They might be too much for us to fight off. We might need a Hulk on our side." Natasha interjected bluntly.

"A Hulk? Nat, the other guy hasn't come out since high school," Bruce glanced in Loki's direction. Loki stared straight down at his plate. "What makes you think that an alien invasion is going to change that?"

"I don't know." Natasha replied with a small shrug. "I guess we're just going to have to wait and see what happens."

Bruce looked concerned by her response. Tony looked concerned by Bruce's concern. Rhodey looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the universe. Peggy looked like she just wanted to answer her phone, which she had silenced about three times since they had sat down to breakfast. Natasha just looked bored.

Steve cleared his throat nervously. "So, Japan, huh?"

"Yeah," Maria said, relieved at the change in subject, "Tokyo is the most populated city in the world. It only makes sense that the aliens would try to target it. We're going to run the plan past Fury tonight and hopefully get to Japan by Thursday."

"How are we going to get there?" Darcy inquired.

"My plane," Tony chimed in, "It's big enough that it should fit all of us and it runs on my schedule."

"And are we staying in your hotel as well?" Steve taunted with a smirk.

Tony snorted and shook his head. "You're about as business savvy as you are funny, Rogers. I'd never invest in a hotel. Too risky. No, that part is up to Fury. He'll probably book a crappy four-star hotel."

Steve and Bucky exchanged amused looks.

"Yeah, I hate when living conditions are below five stars." Bucky jibbed.

"Oh, shut up," Tony sighed, rolling his eyes, "You lived in the woods for two years; boo-hoo. We can't all be bioengineered boy scouts."

"Bioengineered? What do you think we are, superhuman?" Steve asked with an amused smile.

Bruce, Rhodey, Pepper and Maria glared in Tony's direction. Steve quirked an eyebrow, wondering why they were reacting so strongly at Tony's joke. Tony always made stupid jokes.

"Don't flatter yourself." Tony bit back, his words much less venomous than usual, "If I could make a person, I'd make him ten times better than you."

"Of course you would, Stark." Steve chuckled, affording Tony a quick smirk before returning his attention to his breakfast.

Steve didn't notice Rhodey elbowing Tony in the ribs, nor did he notice Bruce making wild gestures towards Steve and the lab. He was much too occupied with the massive pile of French Toast on his plate. Luckily, Bucky was not.

"So, we decided to have a few training sessions for everyone before we get to Japan; we don't know how the fight is going to turn out, and everyone needs to be prepared for the worst. Um, so if everybody could pair themselves up: if you know how to fight, find somebody that doesn't. Rhodey, do you mind helping me?" Pepper remarked hastily, shooting Tony a dark look as she spoke. Bucky continued to watch her suspiciously.

"Wait, why are you asking him? I could train you." Tony reminded Pepper irritably.

"You could train me to use the suit, but you don't know anything about fighting, Tony." Pepper replied, her face reddening a bit.

"I run an entire company that produces weapons. Do you really think that I couldn't teach you how to use each and every one of them?" Tony demanded angrily.

"Uh, hey, let's not worry about who's training who. Let's just get it done. Peg, do you want me to train you?" Steve questioned, clearly trying to divert the attention away from Tony and Pepper's fight.

Peggy and Natasha both looked at Steve like he was out of his mind. Steve and Bucky exchanged mystified looks.

"Steve, I already know how to fight. My father taught me, remember?" Peggy reminded him, an amused smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah, but that isn't the same as fighting against an -"

"Peggy is one of our best agents," Natasha interrupted, "As a matter of fact, I thought that she could train you, Steve. You've been out of the game longer than she has."

Steve's eyes widened in surprise. "Agent?"

"Well, I had to do something after college, didn't I?" Peggy responded with a small smirk.

"I didn't know that you were an agent. I thought you worked at Verizon!" Steve said.

"Oh, darling. You are entirely too gullible and I am entirely too good at my job. Now, if you don't have anything else to say, I think we should begin soon. I can see from the way that you carry yourself that you are going to have trouble getting back into 'the zone,' as Bucky often put it." Peggy reminded him, grabbing the crook of his arm and dragging him off in the direction of the training room.

"Alright, but you've got to take it easy on me at first. The only thing that I fought in Russia was a few wildcats. I'm pretty sure you're a hundred times more dangerous than any wildcat." Steve remarked in an amused yet distinctively concerned tone. Bucky's mouth twitched into a small smile. That smile disappeared when he noticed the curious looks on Tony, Rhodey, and Bruce's faces. Pepper was staring down at her files uncomfortably.

"I want to train with Tony." Bucky announced abruptly.

Everyone turned and looked at him in surprise. Bucky had been too busy analyzing everybody's facial expressions to realize that everyone had talked over the pairings and had thought nothing of placing Bucky with Sam.

"Uh...sure? I guess I could swap with Sam. You heard him, Banner."

"If Stark gets Barnes, I want Darcy." Sam complained.

"No. She is much more acclimated with my fighting style. It will not take her nearly as long to learn to fight under my instruction." Loki objected promptly.

"You just don't want to share." Sam sulked.

"That is correct." Loki responded with a slight smirk.

"Idiots." Darcy huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, we all know who's paired with whom. Now that we've got that figured out, let's get moving." Rhodey declared, clearly realizing that no one would begin training unless prompted.

Sure enough, everybody grumbled but began to move towards their assigned partner. Bucky all but jumped out of his chair and quickly pushed past those who were simply milling around, making a beeline for Tony. Tony seemed surprised at how quickly Bucky materialized by his side but didn't appear to think much of it beyond his initial surprise. Instead, he grinned and led Bucky out to the balcony.

"It's going to get crowded and overheated in the training area," Tony explained with a carefree smile, "Besides, this way I get to throw you off the balcony if I think I might lose."

Bucky forced himself to smile while Tony moved to close the balcony door. The moment that he heard the door click shut, Bucky's smile disappeared altogether. He spun around to face Tony.

"Why did you say that Steve was bioengineered?" He demanded.

"What?"

"Inside. You said something about him being a bioengineered boy scout. Steve thought it was a joke, but I saw the looks that you guys gave each other. They looked like they were ready to tear you limb from limb. Why?" Bucky persisted, taking a few menacing steps towards Tony.

Bucky didn't really like Tony. He never had. Tony was vain, selfish, arrogant, and picked on Steve as a way of compensating for his own unhappiness. Steve was willing to look past it, but Bucky was not. Now that there was a secret that Tony was keeping from Steve, Bucky was gladly pouncing on him.

"Are you new here? They _always_ want to tear me limb from limb. Anyway, we're not out here to talk about your boyfriend. We're here to train. What would you do if someone attacked you with a knife?" To aid in the 'training,' Tony ripped a branch off a nearby tree and lunged at Bucky.

Bucky ripped the branch from Tony's hands and jabbed at him with it. Tony yelped and leapt backwards, stumbling as he did so. Unfortunately, the billionaire's retreat was only temporary. A smirk crossed his face as he ripped off yet another branch and advanced towards Bucky.

"I want to know what you're keeping from Steve." Bucky reminded Tony breathlessly as he struggled to dodge the tree branch that Tony was flailing aimlessly in his direction.

"That's a long list, Buck-o. For one thing, I'm not telling him how terrible his boyfriend is at fighting," Tony let out a loud grunt as Bucky successfully thwacked him upside the head with his tree branch, "I'm not telling him how hot Peggy got in the past two years," Tony managed to catch Bucky's calf with his tree branch, temporarily throwing Bucky off-balance, "and I'm definitely not telling him about how everyone else feels about your little relationship."

Bucky was usually the calm one when it came to him and Steve. Steve would get up-in-arms about the most trivial things and would wind up in the middle of a fist fight with twenty guys at one time. Bucky, meanwhile, would be trying to figure out a way to get Steve out of the mess he had gotten himself into. This, however, was much different. Tony was pushing him; the billionaire seemed to know exactly which button to press. He had picked on Bucky's insecurities and would now pay the price.

Bucky would later claim that he had lost all semblance of control when he threw Tony off of his own balcony, but the truth was, he had never had a clearer mind. Tony was keeping something from Steve and was picking on Bucky as a distraction. Destroying him seemed like the only reasonable thing to do.

Of course, Tony Stark was never quite as fallible as he seemed. He had created some type of mechanic suit that could be summoned at any time or place; this suit wound up being the only reason that he survived Bucky's rage.

"You're going to regret that, Barnes." Tony proclaimed, now hovering a few feet above Bucky in his super suit. Bucky glared up at him challengingly.

Tony launched himself forward, tackling Bucky to the ground. Bucky struggled against the metal grip holding him down against the hard concrete. Tony didn't let up. A swift kick to Tony's right foot changed that. The billionaire's balance was thrown off-kilter, causing Tony to collapse on top of Bucky with a loud 'clang'.

"Tell me what you know about Steve." Bucky demanded, rolling them both over, leaping to his feet and putting his foot across Tony's neck. Tony wriggled and struggled to get his suit operational again.

"No." He snarled as he struggled. Bucky pressed down on his foot even harder. Tony let out a panicked cough and redoubled his efforts.

"Tell me!" Bucky insisted.

"No." Tony spluttered.

"Stark, I'm gonna -"

"Bucky!" Steve's voice tore Bucky's attention away from Tony, "What are you doing?"

Tony took advantage of Bucky's distraction and flung Bucky off of him. Bucky landed at Steve's feet and stared up at his boyfriend stupidly. He noticed a bit of blood trickling down from Steve's left nostril, but was distracted by the throbbing pain in his arm.

"Hey, Steve." He murmured.

Steve laughed. "Hey, Buck. Tony, is there any reason that you brought out the suit for training? Were you trying to kill him?"

"He tried to kill me first!" Tony hollered, gesturing towards Bucky. He flipped up his face mask and stared at Steve indignantly.

"Why is your nose bleeding?" Bucky asked as he stood up and righted himself once more.

"Did Carter do that to you?" Tony chimed in with a lopsided grin.

"She did," Steve replied, wiping the blood from his nose with a sheepish smile, "She's a lot better than I am. You should try training with her, Stark. You might learn something."

"I think I learned enough from your boytoy."

"And I didn't learn nearly enough from you." Bucky countered, eying Tony suspiciously.

Tony quickly averted his eyes and shrugged. It was clear that he was hiding something from Bucky and Steve, but it was also perfectly clear that Bucky was not going to get him to divulge whatever it was that he was hiding. Tony was willing to fall from a balcony before he revealed whatever it was that he was keeping a secret. Bucky scowled.

"I'm going to go get a drink. I'd offer you guys one, but it looks like you're already drunk on love. Just don't break any of my furniture." Tony muttered, clapping his hand on Steve's shoulder before entering his house and darting towards the bar.

"What's the matter with him?" Steve asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Bucky replied, his eyes narrowing as they both watched Tony down an entire glass of bourbon in a startlingly short amount of time, "But I'm going to find out."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

The team trained for about a week more.

Steve wound up with a black eye, a dislocated jaw, and about twenty bloody noses while training with Peggy. He managed to heal up fast enough to confuse even Bruce, who had become his unofficial doctor at some point during the week. Peggy, on the other hand, didn't have a scratch on her.

Bucky's arm got broken during a particularly intense fight with Tony one afternoon and had yet to heal. Tony had lost a tooth during that same fight, but luckily, it was one of his less-noticeable teeth.

Darcy, who had been training under Loki's knife-happy instruction, had accidentally stabbed Loki seventeen times since training began. Loki had threatened to break up with Darcy thirty four times.

Thor tried to teach Jane how to fight and failed miserably. It seemed that he relied too heavily on Mjölnir. Jane snuck off to watch Pepper's lessons with Rhodey in the hopes that she would learn basic self-defense tactics that she could manage. Thor knew but never drew attention to it. He just wanted Jane to stay safe during the fight; it didn't matter how that feat was brought about.

Rhodey was the most experienced at training people in self-defense and successfully taught Pepper a plethora of moves without hurting her in any way. He also noticed Jane watching the lessons and spoke a bit louder to help her hear the instructions. Pepper was not quite as successful at avoiding injuring anybody; she had knocked him down eight times. Rhodey assured her that she had not hurt him every time that she knocked him down. He was lying six of those times.

Sam unsuccessfully tried to bring out the Hulk while training Bruce and wound up just frustrating them both. Bruce usually slipped away from the lessons in favor of attending Maria's lessons. Sam didn't mind; he liked watching Darcy's lessons more than he liked attending his own lessons. There was just something about a girl wielding a knife.

Clint and Natasha oversaw all of the lessons; it was vastly agreed upon that they were two of the best fighters in S.H.I.E.L.D. Whenever they saw someone doing something wrong - which was 95% of the time - they corrected it and hoped that their instructions would be followed. Most of the time they were not.

Regardless of the injuries sustained and the pride injured, the week was up. The team was trained as well as they ever would be, and now it was time for them to go to Japan.

"Last time I saw you, you only had a few cars and two boats. When did you get a plane?" Steve questioned as the ragtag team ambled towards Tony's massive plane. Tony beamed proudly.

"Ah, a few years ago. That sort of thing becomes necessary when you're as busy as I am." The billionaire replied airily. Pepper and Rhodey exchanged looks. Bucky noticed and scowled.

"Have you ever considered loaning it out to your favorite friends?" Darcy asked, waggling her eyebrows. Sam nodded his head enthusiastically.

"My favorite friends? Sure. You? No." Tony replied with a smirk.

"Asshat." Darcy grumbled as they climbed onto the plane.

* * *

Flying Air-Tony was not exactly what Bucky had anticipated. There were not hundreds of scantily-clad stewardesses running about the plane. Instead, Tony showed everyone where they could find food, water, spare blankets, and the bathroom. It was calm and quaint and just so un-Tony-like.

"This is nice." Steve remarked after the plane had taken off, unable to keep the tone of surprise out of his voice.

Tony snorted and rolled his eyes. "I think it'd be nicer if Crazy Cat Lady over there would stop harassing Coulson." He nodded towards Loki, who was currently on the phone with Coulson.

For some unfathomable reason, Coulson had agreed to pet sit for Loki and Darcy's twenty cats. That feat alone was enough to astound everyone else. Coulson then proceeded to go above and beyond the call of duty by accepting all of Loki's frantic phone calls regarding the cats. They had hardly been on the plane for more than ten minutes and Loki had already thought of twelve excuses to turn the plane around and go back home. His best excuse was that the cats might be afraid of Coulson, as they were rarely introduced to strangers. His worst excuse was that they might try cooking and set the entire house on fire. Darcy tried to take his mind off of the cats. Sam tried to egg him on, coming up with more convincing dilemmas that the Odinson cats could find themselves in. He was currently retelling the entire plot of Oliver and Company and successfully terrifying Loki.

Coulson really didn't get paid enough to deal with Loki and his cats.

Clint had wandered back into the kitchen area after Natasha had remarked that she was hungry. Apparently he was planning on cooking her a meal. Nobody really saw how that was possible given the limited groceries and cooking surfaces, but nobody tried to talk him out of it. Peggy and Natasha hung around the kitchen area and laughed as Clint blundered through the meal preparation.

Pepper was on the phone with Happy, who Tony had appointed as the head of security at Stark Industries. Bucky didn't understand a lot of what she said, but it sounded like the gist of the argument involved employees wearing badges. It didn't sound very exciting, but Pepper seemed incredibly involved in the argument.

Tony was pretending not to notice Pepper as she paced up and down the aisle of the plane. In order to do this, he began to tell Bruce, Rhodey, and Maria about some girl that he had just started seeing. For their parts, Bruce, Rhodey, and Maria were rolling their eyes and trying to block Tony out as best they could by focusing on the S.H.I.E.L.D. files that Maria had brought along.

Thor and Jane seemed to be planning a wedding; Bucky hadn't even known that they were engaged, but then, they hadn't all really had time to talk about what was new with their lives. Even if they had, Bucky and Thor had never been exceptionally close. In fact, the closest they had ever gotten was Thor nearly breaking Bucky's skull in two during their senior year. Not that Bucky held a grudge, of course.

Steve was leaning back against his chair and eying Sam in amusement, occasionally piping up to calm Loki down or to tell Sam to knock off the cat horror stories. Bucky had his head laid out on Steve's lap and was perfectly content to watch Steve lecture Sam for the rest of the flight.

It didn't take Bucky very long to slip into a deep, peaceful sleep.

* * *

They landed in Japan around ten o'clock at night. Everyone was jet-lagged and dragging their luggage behind them half-heartedly. They didn't even have the energy to complain when Tony crawled into the hotel lobby on his hands and knees.

"Hello, we're ah, the Smith family." Natasha said, approaching the check-in desk and ignoring the rest of the group as they sprawled out on the lobby floor.

The clerk looked at the pathetic group of young adults skeptically but seemed to decide that they were harmless enough. With a small nod, the clerk handed Natasha a room key. Natasha stared back at the clerk expectantly. When he didn't give her any more keys, she spoke up.

"I, um, I think that they're going to need keys to their rooms as well." Natasha reminded the clerk, gesturing towards the heap of adults lying on the floor. Half of them were snoring softly while the other half pushed and shoved each other in an attempt to get more comfortable.

"There is one room booked for Smith family." The clerk informed her briskly.

Natasha's eyes widened in horror. "No, there should be eleven rooms."

Natasha had been very specific with Fury about this particular request; Steve and Bucky could share a room, Natasha and Clint could share a room, Thor and Jane could share a room, and Loki and Darcy could (probably) share a room. Tony and Pepper, however, could not share a room under any other circumstances. Bruce, Maria, Sam, Rhodey, and Peggy were all in the same boat; there wasn't a single person that they wanted to share a room with. That was mostly due to the fact that they were all afraid of getting Sam (who would undoubtedly keep them up all night chattering about nothing in particular), or getting Bruce (who might spontaneously turn into a massive green monster).

The clerk squinted at the computer and typed a few things before looking back at Natasha with a grim expression. He shook his head slowly.

"There is only one room booked. I'm sorry, the rest of our rooms are already reserved." He explained in an almost bored tone.

"Did I just hear that we only have one room?" Loki demanded irritably.

Natasha turned to face the pile of young adults, grimacing slightly. She had no idea how they were all going to fit in one room without killing each other.

"No, no, no. He's just playing hardball. You know how these people are," Tony muttered, waving his hand slightly, "just offer him some money. He'll find some rooms once he has a few hundreds in his wallet."

"Sir, I'm afraid that there are no rooms. Bribing me will not change that. I'm sorry. Would you like your room or not?" The clerk asked testily.

"Yes, we'll take the room. Everybody get your stuff; we're just going to have to figure this out." Natasha sighed, motioning for the group to collect their belongings and follow her up the stairs towards their room.

Once they arrived at their room, every member of the team groaned in unison. The room was painfully small. There was one bed, the furniture was limited to a small desk and a tiny chair, and saying that there was minimal floor space would have been an overstatement. There was no way that they could all sleep comfortably.

"I'm getting drunk tonight." Tony declared immediately.

"Me too." Sam agreed with a sigh.

"What the hell, me too." Clint chirped.

"I'd rather not remember tonight." Rhodey grumbled.

"So it's settled," Tony remarked, clapping his hands together as though they had reached a happy conclusion to a lighthearted debate, "We're all getting plastered tonight. Who wants to go on a booze run with me?"

"I'll go. Anything to get out of here." Sam replied.

"No," Maria protested, "This room is terrible, we all know that, but you can't get drunk. You need to be prepared for anything; we don't know when these aliens are going to strike."

"It's fine. I can fight 'em drunk, too. C'mon, Sam. I think I might be claustrophobic." Tony murmured, sparing Maria a small scowl before dragging Sam out of the room and in the direction of the lobby.

* * *

Tony and Sam returned after about an hour. As it turned out, they were walking around the city in search of a liquor store when they spotted a nearby toy store. Oddly enough, that particular toy store happened to be having a sale on board games, Candy Land included. The combination of Tony and Sam's toy store purchase paired with their liquor store purchases could only mean one thing:

"Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker!" Tony and Sam shouted, bursting into the cramped hotel room with gleeful smiles. The occupants of the room groaned in unison.

"You still play that god-awful game? Stark, it makes no sense." Steve sighed from where he had managed to curl up in a corner of the room.

"I don't even remember how to play the stupid game. Can't we just drink like normal adults?" Clint complained.

"How dare you?" Tony demanded in a thoroughly offended tone, "Drunk Candy Land has been a key part of our lives for years now. It would be a cardinal sin for us to just drink like a bunch of peasants when we could be playing this timeless game."

"A cardinal sin," Pepper echoed in a condescending tone, "Well. That sums up Tony's understanding of right and wrong."

"And you just summed up your understanding of subtlety." Tony countered irritably.

"Okay, so Drunk Candy Land, huh?" Rhodey interrupted in a falsely bright tone, "Who wants to go first?"

* * *

Tony and Pepper were the first to become intoxicated to the point where they couldn't remember exactly where they were or how they'd come to be in the crappy hotel room in the middle of Tokyo. As stipulated in the rules, they received the crowns as a result. Darcy took plenty of pictures. After all, Loki wasn't paying enough attention to warn her against it.

Instead of playing Drunk Candy Land with his "friends," Loki was pacing the length of the tiny room and shouting into his phone. Coulson was on the other end of the unpleasant phone call. Apparently Sam had also told Loki the plot of Old Yeller and as a result, the demi-god was terrified that his cats might get rabies. He was now telling Coulson that should one of the cats develop rabies, he was not to shoot anything or anyone until Loki arrived back in New York.

Darcy was the next person to get drunk. She couldn't take another minute of listening to Loki carry on about the cats. It was exhausting.

Somewhere in the middle of the game, Steve fell asleep. He was disappointingly sober, as always, and had no interest in playing a game in which Tony and Pepper were passive-aggressively rivaling each other. Bucky ushered Steve towards the bed before anyone else could claim it, ignoring the innuendos made by Tony and an incredibly drunk Thor.

Natasha wound up winning the entire game. That wasn't really an impressive feat given the fact that her competitors were too drunk to properly articulate a sentence. Still, Tony was outraged.

"I wanna rematchh." He protested.

"Tony, everybody is falling asleep." Peggy reminded him in an exasperated tone.

"Just me 'n Romanov, then." Tony persisted.

"The game needs more than two players." Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Shot contest." Tony demanded.

Natasha and Peggy exchanged amused smirks. Clint even chuckled from where he was slumped against the small desk near the window. Tony didn't seem to sense the idiocy of his challenge.

"Okay, shot contest. Peggy, would you pour?" Natasha asked with a wink. Peggy nodded and returned the wink.

"Sure thing, Nat." Peggy swiped an empty bottle of vodka off of the floor and filled it with water while Tony was staring in Pepper's direction. Pepper was talking to Bruce with some difficulty and appeared to be leaning a bit closer to him than she normally would. Tony didn't seem to approve of that.

Peggy poured Natasha a shot of water and Tony a shot of whiskey. The poor billionaire never stood a chance. By one in the morning, everyone in the room was blackout drunk, with the exception of Steve (who never seemed to get drunk), Bucky (who had no interest in drinking when he could be cuddling with Steve), and Loki (who was just worried about his cats).

* * *

"Oh, god. I regret last night. I regret it a lot." Tony mumbled the next morning as Loki yanked over the blinds and tripped over each and every member of the team on his way to the bathroom.

Bucky cracked one eye open and quickly shut it again. How the hell was he hungover? He had only had two, maybe three, drinks last night! He used to be able to stomach five or six before he had to worry about any kind of after-effect.

"Ugh, my tolerance has gone down." He moaned, rolling over to avoid the sunlight creeping into the room.

"You've always been a lightweight." Steve chuckled, grinning down at Bucky before stretching out and yawning.

Bucky forced his eyes open in order to watch Steve waking up. It was one of the best sights of the day, after all. Instead of seeing his unfortunately flawless boyfriend torturing the world with massive biceps and piercing blue eyes, however, Bucky was treated to a slightly different sight. He immediately burst out laughing, causing a sharp pain to shoot through his head.

"What? What's the matter?" Steve questioned immediately.

"What are you hollering about St-oh my god." Peggy poked her head up to see what the commotion was about and began to laugh uncontrollably.

"What?" Steve demanded impatiently.

"You've got a dick on your forehead." Bucky wheezed through fits of laughter.

"Ugh, it's too early for your homosexual shenanigans, Barnes." Tony groaned from his corner.

"You've also got a mustache on your face." Peggy added with a laugh.

"What are you - oh, damn it." Steve looked at his reflection in his phone and saw a large penis drawn across his forehead and a pencil-thin mustache drawn just above his upper lip, "Who did this?"

"I'unno. I'll take a picture." Darcy murmured, propping herself up just long enough to snap a poorly aimed picture in Steve's general direction. Once she felt that her mission was completed, she sunk back down to the floor and closed her eyes.

"Is she okay?" Steve asked, eying Darcy warily.

Loki rolled his eyes and nodded. "She is still heavily inebriated. Darcy, kindly refrain from speaking for the rest of the day."

"Fuck you." Darcy slurred, still not opening her eyes.

"Hey, guys," Maria muttered, peering out the window from her spot in the crappy desk chair, "What's that outside?"

"What're you talking about?" Bruce questioned, stumbling over to the window. It seemed that he was still a bit drunk from the night before. "Oh, no."

"What?" Steve asked, venturing over to the window and allowing Bruce to lean against his shoulder a bit. The blond froze when he realized what it was that had drawn Maria's attention.

There were aliens in Tokyo.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"What do you mean 'they're here'?" Natasha demanded, pushing past Steve in order to get a better look at the creatures swarming the city.

"I mean, Loki's alien pals are in the city. Guys, get up! We've got to deal with this." Steve barked, clapping his hands together and nudging everyone within reach with his none-too-soft foot.

"You've still got a dick on your forehead." Sam grumbled as he stood up and pulled on his shirt, staggering a bit as he did so.

"What? I, oh, right," Steve sighed, touching his forehead and scowling, "Does anyone know if this is going to wash off in the next five minutes?"

"It won't," Natasha replied briskly, handing Steve the shield that he had trained with and pushing him in the direction of the door, "I drew it on you a few hours ago. Permanent marker. Just avoid looking at the cameras once this is all done."

Steve groaned as he allowed Natasha to guide him out of the room. The rest of the team hastily threw on any clothes within arm reach. Those who were hungover gulped down aspirin and as much water as they could stomach. Those who were still drunk accepted the grim situation and attempted to follow Natasha and Steve as best they could. Those who were amazingly sober tried to get their hungover and inebriated teammates situated as best they could.

Ten minutes later, they were all standing outside of the hotel, staring up at the sky with mouths hanging open and eyes wide with horror.

"Okay, guys. I think that we should -" Before Steve could finish his sentence, a group of aliens had noticed Loki and rushed over to ambush the team. Those who were designated to fight, to protect civilians, to remain back and figure out logistics; they were all forced into combat with the aliens. They didn't even have time to protect one another.

Darcy, Pepper, and Sam were the first ones to break free from the fighting. They rushed over to nearby civilians and ushered them towards safe routes out of the city district. The rest of the team covered them as best they could.

"What are you doing? Get out of here!" Sam hollered at one of the civilians who appeared to be running towards the fighting.

"My cat!" The woman protested, casting Sam a dark look.

"Where is your cat?" Loki demanded, glancing around the chaos.

"In my apartment. Please -" The woman was cut off as Loki quickly decapitated an alien and bolted off in the direction of the apartment the woman had pointed out.

"What is he doing?" Darcy demanded from where she was helping children out of an overturned school bus, "Why is he going into that mess? Sam, what is going on?"

Sam shook his head and fought off a series of aliens threatening to move in on the children. "A woman left her cat in her apartment; he's going back for it. I guess it's a bad time to ask if you want to get drinks after we're done with this, isn't it?"

"Oh my god. I'm going to kill him. I'm actually going to kill him. Jane!" Darcy whipped around to locate her best friend.

"I'm a little busy, Darce!" Jane shouted back as she employed all of the combat tactics that Thor, Rhodey, and Natasha had taught her in order to keep herself alive in the presence of about three very wrathful aliens.

Darcy let out an annoyed huff and darted over to where Jane was fighting off the aliens. Darcy quickly pulled out the knife that Loki had grudgingly given her and managed to execute the three aliens in a successful - albeit messy - manner. It seemed that her lessons had paid off more than she had originally let on.

"_Darcy_!" Jane gasped, her eyes widening in surprise.

"I know, right?" Darcy nodded and smiled slightly. Then she realized why she had initially tracked Jane down. "I need you to help Sam and Pepper get those kids out of here. I have to go get Loki."

"Where has Loki gone?" Thor demanded from nearby, peering over Jane's shoulder as he swung his hammer in the general direction of the aliens.

"Loki ran off on us? That bastard!" Tony swore from a distance.

Darcy let out an annoyed huff. "He went to save a cat. Now I have to go save him. Just keep an eye on the kids. Oh, Bucky, I think that you're about to get stabbed." She remarked, nodding towards Bucky before dashing off in the direction that Loki had disappeared.

* * *

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" Darcy demanded as she stormed into the alien-infested apartment; Loki appeared to be fighting off a number of aliens with a kitten in his pocket and what looked a lot like a toddler tucked under his arm.

"Oh, hello, Darcy," Loki said conversationally, jabbing at the aliens with his dagger, "Would you care to assist me?"

Darcy rolled her eyes and removed her knife from it's probably-unsafe location in her back pocket. She jumped to Loki's side and helped fight off the aliens as best she could. She came close to stabbing Loki several times, but somehow managed to kill a handful of aliens without imposing any accidental injuries on anyone.

"Why do you have a baby?" She demanded once the amount of aliens fighting with them had become a bit more manageable.

"Why are you wearing Bruce Banner's shirt?" Loki countered in a bored tone.

"Because I'm not exactly sober right now. I had like, fifteen shots in the past twenty four hours. It's a miracle I'm even standing. Now, your turn. What's the story behind the baby?"

"It seems that its parents have perished at the hands of our foes. I thought it cruel to leave it behind." Loki replied, stabbing the last remaining alien before turning to look at Darcy with a grim smile. Darcy's eyes fell to the toddler. Oddly enough, she wasn't crying. She was simply observing the entire scene with a blank stare.

"Okay, that's not so shitty of you. What are we going to do with her during the battle, though? We can't just babysit while everybody else is getting killed outside." Darcy reminded Loki as they both looked down at the toddler.

"Could we not allow her into the battlefield? Odin allowed Thor and I to accompany him from a very young age." Loki suggested with a shrug.

"And you both turned out fantastic," Darcy reminded him sarcastically, rolling her eyes, "We're not bringing a baby into a battle zone. Is there, like, a day care nearby?"

"Yes, Darcy. The city is being ravaged by a foreign civilization, but there are day cares open and running for warriors in need of such a service." Loki bit back irritably.

"Well, I don't know!" Darcy huffed.

"Let us bring her to the civilians that are being evacuated. They will take the child and the cat far from the battle. Afterwards, we can locate her once more." Loki decided.

"Why would we find her again? We don't, I mean, shouldn't we give her to an orphanage or something?" Darcy inquired as they wandered towards the exit.

Loki shot her a sharp look. "You cannot think that I would leave this young girl to her own fate in such a chaotic place?"

"What else are you going to do? You're not…" Darcy took a minute to size Loki up. When she reached his face, she let out a snort of disbelief. "No."

"What?" Loki demanded petulantly.

"You are not going to raise this baby."

"Why not?"

Darcy looked at Loki as though he had lost his mind. She wasn't entirely sure that he hadn't lost his mind. "There are literally hundreds of reasons why you shouldn't. First of all, it will cost you a girlfriend."

"That hardly seems like it should be a deciding factor."

Darcy glared at Loki.

"Okay, well how about the fact that you have twenty cats. You can't raise a baby in the middle of twenty cats."

"You seem to be coming along nicely despite the cats."

"You're not raising me."

"I disagree. Am I not teaching you basic manners and skills that will aid you in the future?"

"You're not raising me, you're dating me, you ass!" Darcy insisted furiously.

It seemed that her angry voice did not resonate well with the toddler in Loki's arms. She looked from Darcy to Loki, scrunched her face up, and begin crying and screaming. Loki and Darcy both looked down at her in horror.

"Silence. The chitauri will hear you!" Loki chided. The toddler didn't seem to care.

"Awesome parenting." Darcy remarked, rolling her eyes.

"Both of you, hush. I will keep her with me. I will find a way to keep her safe during the battle. Now, I must return this cat and you must assist our comrades. They will undoubtedly blame you if anyone is slain in your absence." Loki announced, sparing Darcy a patronizing smile before pushing past her towards the outside world once more. Darcy sighed and followed behind him.

* * *

"Whoa, what's with the baby?" Clint demanded as soon as Loki and Darcy returned to the fighting grounds.

Loki had conveniently found a baby pouch in an abandoned store along the way to the fighting and had quickly placed the toddler into the pouch and proceeded towards the fighting. The little girl didn't seem to mind very much. She just continued to look around her with a mystified look on her face.

"Please don't get him started on the baby." Darcy groaned, rushing over to where Bruce was struggling to fight off a series of aliens. "Bruce, why are you still human?"

"I've been taking the pills that Loki gives me. I didn't exactly know that there would be aliens today." Bruce replied, doing his best to execute the tactical moves that Sam had not tried very hard to teach him.

"Oh, for Odin's sake…" Loki grumbled, rushing over to assist Darcy in slaying the twenty-something aliens that were circled around her and Bruce, "The pills are _sugar pills_. I purchase them from the grocery store every Saturday morning. You can turn into a mindless beast whenever you'd like."

"What?" Bruce asked, turning his attention away from the aliens in order to stare at Loki in disbelief.

"I tricked you." Loki explained, hastily waving his hand in Bruce's direction before dancing out of the way of two very angry aliens. His toddler companion remained surprisingly calm given the circumstances.

"You tricked me…?" Bruce's voice shuddered. The rest of the team exchanged nervous looks before giving Bruce a little more space than before.

As expected, Bruce turned into the Hulk in a matter of minutes. What wasn't expected, however, was the fact that once the Hulk appeared, he directed his anger at Loki.

"Liar!" Hulk howled, taking a few menacing steps towards Loki.

"Bruce, I-"

"No!"

Natasha sighed and strolled in between Loki and Hulk. Hulk roared at her and shuffled his feet in confusion. It seemed that despite being a massive green rage-monster, he had some semblance of logic still.

"Bruce," Natasha shouted, hoping to direct Hulk's attention away from Loki, "We really need your help right now. Loki is a dick and we all know that, but if you kill him now, there's a chance we could lose this battle. Besides, for some reason, he's got a baby with him. You don't want to hurt the baby, do you?"

Hulk let out a massive sigh and shook his head. Natasha glared back at Loki.

"Yeah, I wouldn't either. Let's just focus on dealing with the aliens and keeping the civilians safe. You can kill Loki afterwards." Natasha bargained.

Hulk looked as though he was considering Natasha's offer for a moment before nodding his head. He quickly turned around and began tearing through the aliens. It was a thousand times more efficient than anyone's more measured fighting strategies.

Darcy and Loki somehow formed a team, both of them managing to maneuver their knives directly into the aliens surrounding them without stabbing each other (though there were a number of close calls).

Clint and Rhodey managed to benefit each other as well; Rhodey fought any aliens on the ground that came too close to Clint while he was firing off arrows, while Clint shot down any aliens that looked like they were hovering dangerously close to Rhodey.

Natasha, Steve, and Peggy were standing back-to-back while they fought, each of them using anything within grabbing distance to take down the aliens around them. Natasha and Peggy were also teasing Steve relentlessly while fighting; it seemed that a number of news stations were getting coverage of the chaotic crisis. Steve was appearing on TV screens across the world on the one day that Natasha had chosen to draw a mustache and a penis on his face.

Thor and Maria were both guarding the exit that the civilians had taken, ensuring that no aliens reached beyond a certain point.

Bucky was following Bruce around and killing off any aliens that he missed.

Tony flew overhead in one of the Iron Man suits that he had created, shooting down any aliens that he encountered.

Sam, Jane, and Pepper continued to guard the civilians, including the cat that Loki had rescued.

While fighting, both Bucky and Peggy managed to find themselves trapped by the aliens. Bucky hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings while following Bruce around, and Peggy had simply bit off a bit more than she could chew. Everyone else was distracted by their own individual fights, leaving Steve to look between Peggy and Bucky in horror. Luckily, Peggy cast Steve a smirk and a nod that let him know that she had her situation entirely under control. Steve turned to Bucky.

The good news was that Steve managed to take down the aliens surrounding Bucky in a short enough period of time that Bucky got away scott-free. The bad news was that Steve himself was not so lucky. He found himself kneeling on the ground with a knife lodged deep into his abdomen.

"Steve!" Bucky shouted, struggling against the aliens pushing him away from Steve. Steve glanced at Bucky with widened eyes before collapsing onto the ground.

"I got him!" Tony announced, swooping down from the sky and landing by Steve's side. He shed some of his armor as he knelt down to inspect Steve. As was his luck, the moment he made himself vulnerable, Tony was shot by an alien.

Learning from the mistakes that both Steve and Tony had made, Thor ushered Jane over to the pair while everybody kept an eye on Jane's surroundings. She put pressure on both of their wounds and took care of them as best she could under the conditions. She hesitated before telling the rest of the team that Steve and Tony would probably live.

The fighting lasted for about two more hours before no more aliens emerged from the skies. It seemed that they had finally given up. Either that, or they decided that Asgard was a much simpler location to attack. Whichever it was, the fighting was over and the team was finally allowed to go home.

Tony and Steve had to be carried onto Tony's plane while everybody else trudged on board and essentially collapsed the moment they reached their seats. Bruce, who had managed to calm down enough to return to his normal, human form, assisted Jane in making Steve and Tony as comfortable as possible. A few of them were just sobering up, some were still hung over, and the rest were just plain exhausted. Even the toddler, who Loki had decided to name Astrid, had fallen asleep at some point during the fight.

The flight home seemed much longer than the flight to Tokyo had been.

Pepper spent the entire time pacing up and down the length of the plane, telling Natasha about a drunken moment she had Tony had shared the night before and worrying that he wouldn't live to remember it. Natasha tried her best to comfort her without much luck.

Bruce and Loki bickered over the sugar pills that Bruce had been taking for the past seven years. Bruce was threatening to sue Loki. Loki was reminding Bruce that regardless of the lies he had told, the pills had worked.

Maria, Jane, and Thor played with Astrid. Thor had especially taken a liking to the adorable little toddler. Jane insisted that Astrid be the flower girl at her and Thor's wedding. Loki had begrudgingly agreed.

Darcy and Sam were sitting towards the back of the plane, completely absorbed in an argument about whether or not Darcy had ever been attracted to Sam. Sam insisted that she had sent him a number of 'signals' throughout high school. Darcy informed Sam that he was delusional.

Clint and Rhodey were engaged in a deep discussion about battle strategies. Rhodey had been amazed by how accurate Clint's shooting had been. Clint offered to give him a few pointers at a shooting range when they returned to New York.

Bucky and Peggy were both huddled in the seat next to Steve's unconscious body. They expressed their concerns about how much blood he was losing and how quickly he had collapsed after being stabbed. Bucky chewed his thumb nail as he stared at Steve's pained expression. Peggy twirled her hair around her finger anxiously. They each took turns comforting one another. They also managed to clean off Steve's face while he was unconscious.

Tony woke up about halfway through the flight. He was in pain and he was sore, but Jane and Bruce had managed to put enough pressure on his wound to stop the bleeding before it impacted him too seriously. Once he was awake, he looked over Steve carefully before curling up by Rhodey and Clint.

The second that the plane touched the ground, Tony was barking out orders in a shaking voice. He instructed Thor to carry Steve to his lab while Jane and Bruce checked up on the rest of the team. Bucky, Natasha, and Peggy immediately objected.

"Tony, he needs to go to the hospital!" Peggy insisted, chasing after Tony as he strode towards his lab.

"Seriously, he's lost a lot of blood." Bucky added anxiously.

"No, he can't go to the hospital." Tony argued as he staggered down the stairs, just barely managing to hold himself upright.

"Yes, he does," Natasha snapped, grabbing Tony's elbow, "And so do you. This isn't negotiable. Come on, I'll have Barton get the car."

"No!" Tony roared, batting Natasha's hand away.

Bucky lost his patience immediately. He grabbed Tony by the collar bone and threw him against the wall. Tony winced but didn't back down.

"He needs to go to the hospital. Now." Bucky growled.

"If he goes to the hospital, they'll never let him go." Tony choked out, glaring back at Bucky.

Bucky raised an eyebrow but loosened his grip on Tony. Natasha and Peggy exchanged cynical looks before staring at Tony expectantly.

"What are you talking about?" Natasha demanded.

"Testing. They'll want to do testing on him. A lot of it." Tony spluttered, rubbing his neck as Bucky finally released him entirely.

"Why would they want to test him?" Peggy questioned.

Tony glared up at the trio but hung his head, deciding that it was best to just confess everything upfront. Bucky was already suspicious and it seemed that the three were willing to rip his head off if it looked like he was doing anything that might harm Steve.

"Because he's not exactly human." Tony admitted.

"What do you mean he's not _human_? He's in there, bleeding just like any other person would!" Bucky protested, gesturing towards the lab door angrily.

"No, any other person would have died if they had been stabbed that way," Tony replied, glowering at Bucky, "Steve is different."

"You'd better tell us exactly how he's different in the next five minutes." Natasha snapped.

Tony gulped and nodded. He directed his attention towards Bucky. "When you and Steve disappeared a few years ago, Bruce and I looked through your files. We were trying to find something, anything, that might help us track you or your corpses down. When we did that, we noticed an abnormality in Steve's file."

"What kind of abnormality?" Peggy persisted.

"He hasn't seen a doctor since he was thirteen years old. He hasn't needed to. That wasn't even the strangest part; the last time he went to the doctor...well, uh, my dad's name was on the file. We pulled a few threads, I looked through my dad's old notebooks and files, and well...I think that he might've...I mean, I don't...he…" Tony took a long, steadying breath, "I think that Steve was a test subject for a serum that he and one of his associates had been working on."

Natasha wrapped her arms around Tony's throat before she could stop herself. Peggy had to wrestle Natasha's hands away from Tony's neck and restrain her before she killed the billionaire.

"Your dad used Steve as a lab rat? How? Why? When?" Bucky demanded, suddenly feeling extremely out of depth with the entire situation.

Tony rubbed his aching throat before shaking his head, avoiding eye contact with any of the three people standing before him. "As much as I'd love to talk about the specifics, I've already wasted entirely too much time talking to you. I need to get in there and run a full-scan on Steve and get him the treatment that he needs. The wound's probably sealed itself up, but his bloodstream needs to be sterilized. If anything contaminates it, I have no idea what would happen. Probably nothing good. Bruce and I have studied his blood extensively; we're the only ones who know how to deal with this."

"Fine." Bucky snapped, surging forward to wrench open the lab doors. "But this conversation isn't over."

"Far from it." Natasha agreed, entering the lab alongside of Peggy and Bucky.

* * *

Steve let out a loud groan as he forced his eyes open. Everything hurt; his bones ached, his head was pounding, and his entire body felt like it was on fire. It took him a second to realize that he was laying down on a table in Tony's lab. It took him another few seconds to realize that Bucky, Peggy, Natasha, and Tony were huddled around him.

"Oh, uh, hey guys." He managed in a hoarse voice.

"Hey, bud." Bucky said with a forced smile. Steve arched an eyebrow.

He moved to look at Tony, Peggy, and Natasha. Unlike Bucky, they weren't sporting fake smiles. They were looking at him with grave expressions that he couldn't understand.

"What's the matter?" Steve asked immediately.

Bucky looked at Tony, Peggy, and Natasha uncertainly. The girls looked at Tony. Tony shrugged with a look of complete resignation. Steve looked around at all of them, wondering why they were all exchanging looks like they were a part of a secret cult.

"Ah, Steve, I don't really know how to tell you this…" Bucky ventured, glancing at Natasha and Peggy for help.

"Tony's dad experimented on you and now you're somewhat of a superhuman." Peggy declared matter-of-factly.

Steve looked at everyone as though they had completely lost their minds. Was he dreaming? He must be dreaming. Tony's dad was dead and had been dead for quite some time. There was no way that he had crept into Tony's lab and experimented on Steve while he was asleep.

"What are you talking about?" Steve questioned uncertainly.

Bucky, Natasha, and Peggy all turned to look at Tony. Tony conveniently pretended not to notice. Peggy cleared her throat loudly. Natasha elbowed Tony in the ribs hard enough to cause the billionaire to let out a loud yelp. Once he had regained his composure somewhat, Tony let out a sigh and approached Steve's bed. Steve stared up at him questioningly.

"Look, do you remember going to the doctor's office to get a shot when you were about thirteen or fourteen?" Tony asked in a dismal tone.

Steve's eyebrows furrowed. "Well, yeah. I got monthly shots for my allergies."

"Did your allergies go away after one of those trips?"

"Yeah…" Steve's voice hitched just a bit, signifying that he had not thought much about the sudden disappearance of his allergies.

"I thought so," Tony murmured, nodding his head slightly, "The last 'allergy' shot that you got wasn't an allergy shot at all. It was a serum that my dad and some colleagues had been working on for a few years. The serum sort of turned you into...this. Something a little bit more than human. Something a little bit _better_ than human."

"What does 'more than human' mean?" Steve demanded, anger suddenly welling up in his still-sore chest. He didn't want to be more than human. He didn't even want to be better than human. He just wanted to be Steve. Plain and normal Steve.

"It means exactly what it sounds like. Your muscles develop more rapidly than any other living being on the planet. You can outrun a fucking cheetah. Your recovery rates are unprecedented. You could probably jump out of a plane without a parachute and hit the ground running. I think you were just a prototype; I don't know what they were planning on using the serum for, but it's too late now. They didn't write down any formulas and the only serum left in the world is in your bloodstream." Tony explained, pacing the room and refusing to meet Steve's eyes.

"So, what, your dad just used me as a lab rat?" Steve asked.

"How is that even legal?" Bucky chimed in.

"It can't be." Peggy remarked, shaking her head.

"It was," Tony snapped back irritably, "Steve was an orphan who signed his life away to S.H.I.E.L.D. High. He was in custody of the state. This was a state-funded project. Why do you think you were accepted into S.H.I.E.L.D., Rogers? They _chose_ you."

"But when did they…? My mom took Steve to all of his appointments. She would have known that something wasn't right." Bucky protested weakly.

"She didn't take me that day," Steve admitted dismally, "She was picking you up from summer camp."

"Oh, god." Bucky groaned, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Look, it's not a big deal. You've been this way for years. Now you just know why." Tony said in a brisk tone, clearly not wanting to spend much more time on the current topic. Big mistake.

Steve's eyes flashed with anger. "It is a big deal, Tony. All my life, I thought that I'd worked for everything I got. I thought that I'd be accepted into S.H.I.E.L.D. because they thought that I had potential. I thought that we won football games because we practiced harder. I thought that I was the better soldier because I trained more. Turns out it was all just put in my lap."

"Steve…" Peggy sighed, sitting next to him on the table and placing a hand on his shoulder. Steve shrugged it off and shook his head.

"I need to think," Steve announced, standing up with some difficulty and avoiding meeting anyone's eyes, "Just...give me some space, would you?"

"Yeah, okay." Tony agreed reluctantly.

"Steve-" Bucky mumbled, taking a step towards Steve. Steve shook his head and backed away.

Before anyone could say anything else, Steve darted out the door and out of sight. Natasha glanced around at the remaining occupants of the room before letting out an annoyed huff and following after Steve.

* * *

Natasha found Steve sitting on the roof. He was huddled up with his knees pulled tight to his chest. He didn't even turn to look at Natasha as she sat down next to him.

"Are you okay?"

"Go away, Nat."

"We both know that's not happening. Answer my question." Natasha persisted.

"I'm fine." Steve mumbled, tangling his hand in his hair.

"Liar." Natasha countered with a small smirk.

Steve glared at Natasha for a minute before gazing off towards the setting sun. He shook his head and let out an annoyed groan.

"I don't deserve anything that I have. If Tony's dad hadn't made me his lab rat, we wouldn't even be friends."

"I think you're being a little dramatic. You still would have walked into the girl's bathroom on the first day of school. No serum could change what a total idiot you are." Natasha teased, nudging Steve with her shoulder playfully. Steve scowled and shook his head.

"I wouldn't have even been at S.H.I.E.L.D. if it wasn't for the stupid serum. I'd have been just another skinny kid at Jefferson High. You wouldn't have known who I was, none of you would have. And Bucky, well…" Steve let out a humorless laugh, "Bucky wouldn't have lost his memory during that damned football game. He probably wouldn't have even given me a second thought. He'd probably be happily married somewhere."

Natasha punched his shoulder. Steve let out a surprised yelp and turned to look at Natasha reproachfully. Natasha glared right back at him.

"Look, Steve. I'm not Bucky's biggest fan, you know I'm not. But even I know that he would still be just as crazy about you if you were tiny and useless. He wouldn't have waited ten million years if he was only into the whole tall, dark, and muscle-clad thing. He could have probably just settled for a Steve look-alike, if that was the case. He's with you because he loves the skinny Steve hiding inside of the super soldier Steve."

"You think so?" Steve asked, turning to look at Natasha. His mouth curved into a small smile.

Natasha nodded. "Of course. I actually think that he loves you in spite of the muscles. What do I know, though?"

Steve shrugged. "More than I do." The smile quickly faded from his lips.

Natasha smiled up at him for a moment before standing up and ruffling his hair. Steve flinched away from her touch, swatting at her hands competitively.

"Ah, Nat, stop!" He complained, attempting to straighten his perpetually messy hair.

"Not until you stop moping." Natasha replied, managing to fight Steve off just enough to mess up his hair even more.

"I just found out that I'm a human experiment. Let me mope for a while." Steve insisted, standing up and backing away from Natasha.

"No way. The longer you mope, the longer Tony is going to be sitting in his lab panicking over what a jackass his dad might have been. Even worse, the longer you mope, the longer Bucky and Peggy are going to sit around and talk about what a jackass Tony's dad was. They're all going to kill each other if you don't get back into that building soon."

"Can't you just keep them from killing each other?" Steve huffed.

"Maybe, but this is easier. Come on." Natasha tugged at Steve's arm. Steve shook his head and remained exactly where he was.

Natasha glowered at him for a moment before letting out a sigh of resignation. She released Steve's arm and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. Steve watched her curiously, but didn't say a word.

"Coulson, hi." Natasha smirked at Steve before circling him while speaking, "Yeah, I know, you probably didn't sleep that much while you were watching Loki's cats. This will only take a minute, I swear. Can you please look up Steve Rogers' file? It's important."

"Nat, you don't have to -"

Natasha held up her hand, effectively silencing Steve's objections. She tapped her foot and nodded her head while she waited for Coulson to say something again.

"Great, yeah, that's the one. No, don't worry about the reason. It isn't important. Yes, I have the clearance for it. Oh, are you kidding? Look, I have Steve right here with me. Do you want me to have him authorize access to the file?" Natasha demanded in an irritated tone. Steve suddenly felt very sorry for Coulson.

"What do you mean he isn't authorized either? It's his file!" Natasha let out an annoyed groan. "Coulson, he knows about the serum. We all know about the serum. Tony's dad had a notebook outlining the entire experiment - how long did you really think that it would remain a secret? Now, you can either send me the files right now, or Tony and I will hack S.H.I.E.L.D. in the next hour. Which will it be?" She paused to smile at Steve brightly. Steve forced himself to smile back, although his smile was considerably less cheerful. "Good choice."

Steve sighed as Natasha returned her phone to her pocket. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair.

"Nat, I don't know what you want to do with my file, but you shouldn't -"

"Yes, I should. Like it or not, you're my best friend. As my best friend, you're much less useful when you're moping around and complaining about how miserable your life would have been if Tony's dad hadn't experimented on you. I'm going to fix that." Natasha replied, grabbing Steve's arm once more and dragging him towards the lab much more forcefully than she had before.

Steve soon found himself standing in Tony's lab once more. Peggy and Bucky were watching him anxiously, neither of them speaking for fear that he might run off again. Tony was helping Natasha set up the file that Coulson had sent over on what looked like some kind of holographic projection. Neither of them paid Steve much mind. Steve, meanwhile, just stared down at the ground resolutely.

"Ah, here we go," Natasha remarked, drawing Steve's attention away from a tiny ant crawling across the lab floor, "Steve, take a look at this."

Steve looked up and gazed at the documents for a moment before shrugging. "What am I looking at?"

Tony and Natasha exchanged exasperated looks.

"Your S.H.I.E.L.D. application, dipshit." Tony answered.

"Tony," Bucky growled, taking a step towards the billionaire. Peggy rolled her eyes and placed a hand on Bucky's shoulder.

"Why are you showing me this? Is there a special section on any other tests Tony's dad might have done on me?" Steve questioned, taking a step towards the projection.

Natasha rolled her eyes and shook her head. "No. Take a look at the description underneath the 'accepted' status."

Steve raised an eyebrow at Natasha but did as told.

**Steven Grant Rogers**:

**Height**: **5"4**

**Weight: 94lbs**

**Medical History: Extensive**

**Valued Traits: Loyal, courageous, selfless, intelligent, hardworking, natural leader, excellent social skills, adaptive, compassionate, cooperative, decisive, dutiful, moralistic, disciplined, focused, good-natured, humble, practical, self-sufficient, trusting, well-rounded.**

**Destructive Traits: Stubborn, protective**

**Threat level: Low**

**Educator Recommendation: Steven Rogers is an exemplary student who strives for success not just for himself, but also for his there are many schoolyard fights listed on his record, Steven has proven time and time again to dislike violence for the sake of violence. He has expressed an interest in a number of civics courses and has been very active in the anti-bullying campaign run by the student government. He is extremely bright and gravitates towards leadership positions when possible. He will undoubtedly be an invaluable asset to S.H.I.E.L.D. High.**

**Intelligence Level: Moderate to Advanced**

**Analysis: Steven Rogers will do well in the military field of S.H.I.E.L.D. His characteristics and past experiences will aid him well. His strong moral compass will prompt subordinates to trust him, and will serve the entire agency well in the near future. Additionally, it is possible that he will serve as an honest figurehead to the American population. Once graduated, send to Colonel Phillips. After he has gained enough experience, Steven will lead his own special unit for special operative missions. S.H.I.E.L.D. should consider him a high-priority acceptance.**

"Yeah, so?" Steve muttered dismally, "They wanted somebody that they could turn into a superhero. One of my teachers thought that I fit the bill. Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"It should," Natasha replied with yet another eye-roll. "Look at the date on the document."

"Wait…" Bucky muttered, taking a step closer to the document, "Is that…"

"Steve, you were in first grade when they started this file." Peggy remarked, squinting her eyes at the document like she couldn't quite believe what she was reading.

Steve turned around to face Natasha. "What's going on?"

Natasha shrugged with a smile. "You've always been special, Rogers. With or without the serum."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

"I want the west wing." Darcy argued the moment that Tony laid an intricately drawn blueprint across his kitchen table.

The entire team was standing around the kitchen eating pizza while Tony explained his latest scheme. He wanted to turn Stark Towers into what he called the "Avengers Tower". Natasha and Steve agreed that Tony had been reading entirely too many comic books. Regardless of the name, though, it was evident that Tony had put a lot of thought into the renovation.

Darcy and Loki would get an entire hallway to themselves. There was their shared bedroom, a guest bedroom for the nights when they fought more than usual, a bathroom, and a nursery for Astrid. Tony even boasted that he had consulted one of the best nursery architects in New York City. The billionaire was a bit offended when nobody was particularly impressed by that detail.

Steve and Bucky were each given their own rooms right next to each other. Ruining his attempts at subtlety, Tony then informed the pair that he would include an adjoining door right in the middle. He emphasized his point with waggling eyebrows and a knowing smirk. Steve's face was redder than a tomato by the time Tony shifted gears to talk to Bruce.

Bruce already occupied a room towards the back of Tony's lab. Tony promised to expand the room and renovate it so that no nuclear waste would be able to seep through the walls. Bruce doubted that nuclear waste could possibly make a difference at this point. He was already half-human, half-Hulk, after all.

Clint and Natasha were given a room directly above the training room. There were massive windows and a small balcony where Clint could perch and watch the rest of the team train. There was also a trap-door leading to the roof, but Tony didn't mention it in front of the rest of the team. He would tell Natasha that in private. Everybody needed their own place to escape to.

Sam requested a room near Darcy's room, so Tony allotted him a bedroom that was literally on the other side of the tower. Loki smirked at Tony while Sam complained. Tony did, however, put a small kitchen in Sam's room to compensate for the dismal location. Sam loved to cook.

Rhodey was given a bedroom next to the training room. Tony didn't explain his reasoning for this in front of the rest of the team for fear of embarrassing Rhodey. Rhodey hadn't slept well since returning from an active war-zone. He often worked out in the middle of the night just to keep the haunting thoughts out of his mind. Not to mention, the sound of other people working out seemed to put him at ease. Rhodey smiled down at the blueprint appreciatively.

Thor, Jane, Peggy, and Maria were all offered rooms in the tower as well, but as Tony had expected, they all declined.

Thor and Jane had already bought a beautiful house in the suburbs in preparation for their fast-approaching wedding. They did promise to make use of Darcy and Loki's guest room every once in a while, though. They couldn't stay away from their new niece for very long periods of time.

Peggy reminded Tony that while Edwin was very understanding of the strange schedule her job kept, her marriage would likely fall apart if she no longer lived with her husband.

Maria just could not stand the thought of living in the same building as Tony Stark.

Once everybody was satisfied enough with the blueprints, they began to disperse. Bruce wanted to have a better look at Bucky's arm, which had still not been set properly since he had broken it so many days ago, Steve challenged Peggy to a rematch in the training room now that he knew that he was superhuman, Natasha and Clint wanted to watch Steve get yet another black eye, Maria wanted to have a first-aid kit nearby in case Steve really got hurt, Loki wanted to introduce Astrid to his twenty cats, Darcy and Thor both wanted to make sure that none of the cats scratched Astrid, Jane had to call her and Thor's real estate agent, and Sam and Rhodey wanted to buy some furniture for their rooms. After about ten minutes, Tony and Pepper were the only two left in the kitchen.

"Uh, well, I, uh, I guess I'll go bring these to my contractor." Tony muttered, feeling extremely uncomfortable about being alone in a room with his ex-girlfriend.

"I don't get a room?" Pepper questioned, her face reddening.

Tony looked at her in surprise then looked down at the blueprints with furrowed eyebrows. He had not accounted for Pepper wanting a room.

"I thought that it might be weird...you know. Uh, aren't you living with your cousin?" He asked, not looking up from the blueprints.

"For now," Pepper replied awkwardly, "She's just moving in with her fiance in a few weeks and...you know what? Forget it. Disregard me. I don't know what I'm talking about." Pepper shook her head and moved to exit the room.

"Pepper." Tony sighed, effectively halting Pepper at the door, "What's going on with us?"

"What do you mean?" Pepper asked.

"Any of my other ex-girlfriends would have quit working for me by now," Tony replied, sitting down on the edge of the kitchen table and watching Pepper cautiously, "But not only did you stay, you fought aliens with me and the rest of those dumbasses."

"I didn't really help because of you." Pepper objected, folding her arms across her chest and blushing furiously.

"You didn't stop staring at me after I got shot. You didn't even eat dinner when Sam made everyone grilled cheese. This pizza is the only thing you've really had since we were in Tokyo." Tony continued, not seemingly to notice Pepper's argument.

"I was just worried that I would have to start looking for another job if you died." Pepper asserted.

Tony looked up at Pepper with sad eyes and a worn smile. Pepper's surly attitude faltered.

"I'm not accusing you, Pep. I just want an honest answer once and for all. Is there any chance that you might love me, even just a little bit?"

Pepper bit her lip and stared at the ground, allowing herself a few minutes to think about Tony's question. Tony watched her, each passing minute causing his heart to beat a little faster in his chest.

"Nothing's changed. You haven't changed." She reminded him.

"I know." Tony admitted, hanging his head slightly.

"In fact, I think you actually might be worse than you were before. You're not spending every waking hour searching for Steve, but you're always building those suits, you spent hours just analyzing Steve's blood, and let's not talk about how many women I've seen coming and going at all hours of the night."

"I know." Tony repeatedly glumly.

Pepper sighed. "But somehow, I think I might still love you."

Tony looked up immediately. "What?"

"You heard me." Pepper cracked a smile.

"Yeah, I'm working on the believing part, though."

"You've always had trouble with that part."

"So, you want to live here?"

"If it's not too much trouble."

"Not at all," Tony replied eagerly, spreading out the blueprints and pulling a pencil out of his silverware drawer, "Where do you want your room? I can move anybody you want."

"How about your room?" Pepper mused.

Tony grimaced. "I should have known you'd go down that room. Alright; I'll get some movers to get my stuff out of the room by tomorrow."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "I'm not kicking you out of your room, Tony."

"But you want to stay in my room…?" Tony didn't allow himself to finish his question.

"With you, yes." Pepper concluded with an amused smile.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

By the time that everyone had moved in and gotten situated in the Avengers tower, it was time for Thor and Jane's wedding. Loki had reluctantly agreed to be Thor's best man, Darcy had happily agreed to be Jane's maid of honor, and Astrid had unknowingly agreed to be the flower girl. Pepper, Natasha, Maria, and Peggy had been roped into being bridesmaids while the guys had all somehow been asked to be groomsmen.

Allowing their teammates to be such a large part of their wedding was extremely generous of Thor and Jane, but also extremely stupid. The wedding was set to begin in an hour's time and none of the occupants of the Avengers tower were even close to being ready.

"Loki, why is Astrid crying?" Darcy demanded as she hopped up and down on one foot in an effort to slip on her heels without sitting down among the mess that Loki's daughter had created.

"She loathes the dress that Jane has selected for her." Loki replied matter-of-factly, scooping Astrid up off of the ground and smiling down at her. She stopped crying almost immediately. Darcy rolled her eyes.

"I'm not so crazy about the dresses that Jane selected for us, either." Peggy mumbled, striding into Darcy's room in order to borrow the pearl necklace that Darcy had offered her the night before.

"Yeah, it isn't your greatest look." Clint agreed from down the hall. A muffled yelp was then heard. It could be assumed that Natasha had kicked him in the shin.

"I think you look perfect, Darcy." Sam proclaimed loudly from the same general direction as Clint.

"Sam, get in your tuxedo." Steve sighed in exasperation.

"Not until Tony does." Sam argued sulkily.

"I'm waiting for Pepper to get out of the bathroom!" Tony exclaimed in an annoyed tone.

"Don't you have about five thousand bathrooms?" Steve reminded Tony.

"My tux happens to be in _that_ bathroom." Tony grumbled.

"I wouldn't still be in this bathroom if you hadn't taken forever and a day to trim your facial hair." Pepper called from the bathroom.

"Okay, Sam, just get your tuxedo on. Look: Bucky and I are wearing ours. Rhodey is wearing his. Bruce is wearing half of his. Clint is...uh...Clint, I think you're bleeding on yours." Steve said, his voice trailing off as he noticed a streak of red spreading across Clint's white shirt.

"Wha-_oh, damn it_. Nat, I told you the stitches would rip if I tried to deadlift the day after getting them. Bruce, can you stitch me up again?" Clint sighed as though ripping his stitches was simply a run-of-the-mill inconvenience.

"Yeah, sure. Let's go down to the lab." Bruce replied in an amused tone.

"Try to hurry." Steve groaned as Bruce ushered Clint in the direction of the lab.

"Oh, Astrid, _no_!" Loki exclaimed upon realizing that Astrid had drawn all over her dress with a permanent marker that she had reached from the confines of Loki's arms.

"Guys, we have twenty minutes to go to the museum." Steve reminded everybody, pacing the length of the hallway in frustration.

"We're never going to make it," Bucky informed Steve in a slightly sympathetic tone, "You're just going to have to accept it."

"I will never accept it." Steve huffed.

"Sam, why are you not in your tuxedo?" Peggy demanded critically, folding her arms across her chest and glaring at Sam.

"Tony's still not in his!" Sam pouted.

"Pepper is in the bathroom. Pep, did you fall in the toilet?" Tony demanded loudly.

"I am putting on my makeup. If I hear another word about it, I'm not going to go." Pepper shouted back.

"Sam, if you put on your tuxedo now, I'll have a surprise at you at the end of the wedding." Darcy yelled from the bedroom, taking Astrid from Loki in order to fix her dress as best as was possible. Sam nearly knocked Maria down in an effort to get to his bedroom to change.

"A surprise?" Loki inquired irritably.

"Lizzie." Darcy replied with a small smirk.

"Ah." Loki returned the smirk.

"Okay guys, I'm all stitched up!" Clint declared, running into the hallway and raising his arms triumphantly.

"Clint!" Steve groaned, gesturing towards the fresh streak of red raced across Clint's shirt. He had ripped his stitches again.

"Come on." Bruce grumbled, dragging Clint towards the lab for fresh stitches yet again.

"Pepper, how are you coming along with the makeup?" Steve asked hopefully.

"All done." Pepper proclaimed, exiting with bathroom with a proud smile.

"You look great, honey. Now would you please move out of the way?" Tony questioned, placing a hand on Pepper's waist in order to move her out of the way while he rushed into the bathroom to change.

"Sam?" Bucky questioned in a raised voice.

"Done!" Sam replied, rushing back into the hallway and smiling at Darcy widely, "You owe me a surprise."

"Okay, we're just waiting on Tony and Clint. Everybody else should head to the garage. We only have twenty minutes until the wedding starts. We're leaving the minute everyone else is ready. First one to the parking lot gets to choose which car we take." Steve barked, shepherding the rest of the team in the direction of Tony's oversized garage. Sam and Darcy pushed and shoved at each other in order to get to the garage first.

"I want the red convertible!" Darcy announced loudly.

"That's a two seater, Darcy. We won't all fit." Natasha argued in an annoyed tone.

"Sam can walk." Loki suggested brightly.

Steve and Bucky both sighed in exasperation. They exchanged dismal looks.

"I'll go look after them." Bucky mumbled, slinking off after the team.

* * *

The entire team wound up being thirty minutes late to Jane and Thor's wedding. When Tony and Clint had finally managed to pull themselves together enough to meet in the garage, Tony spent about ten minutes arguing over which car they would take. They wound up taking two cars because Steve quickly realized that Tony and Darcy would never compromise. Tony and Darcy each drove one of the cars. Steve should have known better than to let them drive.

About five minutes into their drive towards the museum at which Jane and Thor's wedding was to be held, Darcy had decided that she had a taste for a Chick-fil-A milkshake. Darcy called Tony and Tony had suddenly agreed that a milkshake stop was in order. Both cars got stuck in the massive drive-thru line for about ten minutes. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rhodey was fighting off Clint in an attempt to keep him from stealing a handful of fries when he bumped into Peggy, who accidentally spilled her vanilla milkshake on his black tuxedo pants.

Because of the new stain on Rhodey's pants, Darcy insisted that they stop at Target to pick up a stain-removing pen. It took the group about ten minutes just to locate the pen in the midst of the store's Saturday crowd. That might have also been due to the amount of people that flocked towards the team the moment they recognized the strange team of almost-superheroes. More than a few people asked Steve why he had had a penis drawn on his forehead during the battle in Tokyo.

Once they returned to the cars and got back on the road, they realized how obscenely late they were. Tony and Darcy decided that they should race to the museum in order to make up for lost time. The rest of the team tried to object, but it was far too late for reason. They arrived at the museum within five very terrifying and dangerous minutes.

"Where have you been? Why are there scribbles all over Astrid's dress?" Jane hissed as the entire team leapt out of the cars and ran through the museum to get into their places.

"Do you really want us to take the time to explain everything?" Natasha asked dubiously.

"No, no," Jane huffed, taking Astrid out of Loki's arms and handing her a small basket containing flower petals, "Just get the wedding planner to tell you what to do. Astrid, honey, are you ready to be the flower girl for your aunt Jane and uncle Thor?"

The rest of the team shuffled off in the direction of the frantic wedding planner, all of them coming up with their own versions to the series of events that prompted their tardiness. The majority of them were planning on blaming Tony. Tony was planning on blaming Steve. The wedding planner ended up yelling at all of them, regardless of who they blamed.

* * *

Jane and Thor's wedding didn't exactly go off without a hitch; Astrid made it about two feet before she dumped all of the flower petals in one spot and refused to take another step. Loki had to dash from Thor's side in order to scoop her up and bring her down the aisle. Astrid then refused to be put down; whenever Loki tried, she would squeal and squirm and interrupt the entire ceremony. Loki was therefore forced to hold her throughout the wedding.

When it came time for the rings, Loki was unable to produce the rings from his pocket without upsetting the ever-temperamental Astrid. As a direct result, Steve had to fish the rings out of Loki's pocket. Thinking that Steve was attacking her father, Astrid hit Steve with her flower basket repeatedly during the process.

As they finally exchanged rings, the wedding photographer decided that it was the perfect opportunity to take a picture. Peggy's nose decided that it was the perfect opportunity to sneeze. Neither Tony nor Thor could resist laughing; they couldn't wait to see how those pictures turned out.

Once the ceremony was finally over, the group was faced with something even more daunting: the reception.

Peggy tried to teach Steve to dance, which was just as hopeless as it had been back in high school. Tony was jeering at Steve while constantly stepping on Pepper's toes. Pepper scolded him half-heartedly. Natasha and Clint had attempted to dance, but Clint had ripped his stitches yet again. Natasha demanded that they go to the hospital to figure out just what the hell his problem was. Bruce and Maria went to the hospital with Clint and Natasha. Darcy had bullied Bucky into dancing with her, as her usual dance partner was otherwise occupied. Loki was showering Edwin - Peggy's husband, who had finally received an introduction to the team - with questions. Edwin had made the mistake of telling Loki how to get marker stains out of Astrid's dress. Loki was eager to learn what other types of domestic advice the man had to offer. Rhodey and Sif were sitting at a table and discussing what they had been doing since they had graduated from S.H.I.E.L.D. High. Everybody was casting sideways smirks at the pair, wondering if Rhodey and Sif would be the next pair to get married. Sam was the only one who had not found something to do from the get-go.

"Darcy," He said, approaching Bucky and Darcy with an outraged expression, "When am I going to get my surprise?"

Darcy turned to look at Sam in surprise. Bucky ran off while Darcy wasn't looking. Sam huffed expectantly. Darcy's eyes lit up as she suddenly recalled exactly what she had promised Sam.

"Right, Elizabeth! Oh, there she is. Come on." Darcy remarked, pulling Sam through the crowd on the dance floor and in the direction of the bar. Sam glanced down at Darcy's hand on his arm and smirked at Loki from across the room. Loki rolled his eyes and continued to ask Edwin about the proper diet for a toddler.

As they reached the bar, Darcy approached a young woman with her back turned to them and tapped her shoulder. The young woman turned around and Sam's eyes immediately widened.

"Did you...are you...clone?" He spluttered helplessly.

Darcy and her "clone" both laughed.

"Sam, this is my twin sister, Elizabeth." Darcy explained with a smirk.

"Elizabeth?" Sam echoed, his eyes widening.

Loki finally left Edwin to watch the scene unfolding between Sam and Darcy's twin. He, Elizabeth and Darcy exchanged amused looks before watching Sam look around in utter confusion.

"Yeah, my mom had this whole Pride and Prejudice thing…" Darcy explained, rolling her eyes, "Anyway. Lizzie, this is Sam. Sam, Lizzie saw you fighting in Tokyo and thought you were cute."

"Darcy!" Elizabeth exclaimed, glaring at Darcy. Darcy smirked back.

"Oh, it's fine. You think he's hot, he thinks you're hot...actually, I don't know why I'm still here. Elizabeth, you should get Sam a drink. He'll tell you that his favorite drink is scotch on the rocks, but it's actually a strawberry margarita. Hey! Another thing you have in common!" Darcy rambled, causing both Elizabeth and Sam to look at her in complete horror.

"Darcy, it seems that Astrid has grown quite restless. I think that it is time for her nap." Loki remarked.

Darcy turned to look at Loki inquisitively. "Okay. Why are you telling me that?"

"I think that we had better leave in order to get her to bed. She cannot fall asleep in the middle of this chaos. Come along; we will give our love to Jane and Thor before going home."

Of course, Astrid wasn't restless. On the contrary, she had settled down considerably since the actual ceremony. Loki just recognized that if Sam and Elizabeth were ever to bond, Darcy would have to be removed from their presence. Darcy scowled as Loki dragged her off.

Seven months later, Sam and Elizabeth were engaged.

Darcy gave herself full credit for the engagement.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

A few months later, everyone found themselves sitting in the living room of Stark Towers, surrounded by presents and cheesy Christmas lights. Loki's cats had already managed to knock down the ridiculously expensive tree that Steve and Natasha had decorated the night before. Darcy suspected that Astrid had assisted the cats in that particular feat. She was growing up to be quite the trickster. She supposed the apple didn't fall far from the tree in that regard.

Maria had taken the liberty of inviting Fury and Coulson to spend Christmas in the Avengers Tower once she learned that neither of the men had anywhere to go for the holiday. Fury and Tony had both tried to come up with excuses to shoot down her proposition, but Natasha had backed Maria up, and everyone knew better than to try to argue with both of them.

Now they were all sitting in the living room while Steve distributed presents. Astrid had taken to crawling all over Fury in an effort to take his eye patch. Everyone else watched in amusement as Thor and Jane attempted to wrestle Astrid away from Fury before he had the opportunity to yell at her.

"Are those all Astrid's presents?" Clint asked in surprise once Steve had finally finished sorting the presents into neat piles in front of everyone gathered around the living room.

"Yeah," Steve replied with a laugh, "I think we all went a little overboard."

They certainly had. The pile of presents sitting before Astrid was taller than she was; Steve had counted about one-hundred presents for the little girl alone while sorting. Each of the Avengers had contributed about the same amount of presents to the massive pile. They had all received a fairly short list from Astrid herself; the poor girl just wanted a rubix cube and a helmet like her daddy's. She wound up with all of that and more.

It would be too difficult to list out all of the presents that Astrid received. In all honesty, by the end of the evening, Astrid could not even remember all of the presents that she had received throughout the course of the evening. That was partially because Loki had a few of them from her; namely, the hover board that Tony had made her, the charcoal pencils that Steve had gotten her, the arrows that Clint had gotten her, the knife that Natasha had gotten her, and the illegal fireworks that Bucky had gotten her. In hindsight, the demi-god supposed that he should have come up with a list of presents that were inappropriate for a four year-old.

Of the gifts that her protective guardian did allow her to receive, Astrid's absolute favorite was the sketch that Steve had done of her. Steve himself hadn't thought much of it, but Natasha had found it on his desk and insisted on framing it and giving it to Astrid. Now Astrid was demanding that Steve draw a picture of every single occupant in the room immediately.

While Astrid shoved Steve's sketchpad and dangerously sharp pencils near his face, the rest of the Avengers opened their presents. Steve even managed to open a few while Astrid attempted to draw Loki herself.

None of the Avengers received nearly as many presents as Astrid did, but they still received a sizable amount. It would take far too long to even try to list everything that each of the 17 people received; it would be much easier to focus on the favorite presents once more.

Natasha's favorite present was tickets to the Nutcracker. Clint swore up and down that he had waited in line for days to recover the tickets. Everyone else knew that he had just put his name on the waitlist and called everyone that might have tickets until he found seats. He wound up having to pay an extremely obnoxious woman $500 per ticket in order to convince her to part with her own tickets.

Clint's favorite present was a pizza. No, really. Natasha picked up a pizza and wrapped it about fifteen minutes before Tony declared that it was time to open presents. Clint began eating the pizza immediately after thanking Natasha. He gave Pizza the dog a slice as well.

Steve's favorite present was a toss-up. He actually received three presents that he considered to be the best; Natasha got him a compiled write-up of every mission that he had run since joining S.H.I.E.L.D., Peggy got him a new shield that she had brainstormed and coerced Tony into building, and Bucky got him a survival kit that included a massive first aid box and a roadkill cookbook, should they ever find themselves stranded in a foreign country again.

Bucky's favorite present was a scrapbook from Steve. Mrs. Barnes had played a hand in that; the woman would forever resent Steve and Bucky for not seeing her the moment they set foot on U.S. soil, but she would always help them the second that they asked. She had helped Steve recover old photographs (Steve had some kind of injury in almost every single picture), old letters from teachers begging Mrs. Barnes to talk to Bucky about fighting other kids for picking on Steve, and old notes that Bucky and Steve used to pass to each other in their horrendously boring middle school classes. All of those things and more were put into the scrapbook that was then wrapped and designated to Bucky. Steve was worried that it might be corny. Bucky assured him that it was perfect.

Darcy's favorite present was a book of accurate tales of Asgard that Loki had written himself. Some of the stories about Thor might have been a little exaggerated, but Darcy wouldn't mind that.

Loki's favorite present was a macaroni art pictures that Astrid had made him of each and every one of their cats. He promised that he would get them framed the next day.

Thor's favorite present was a cell phone that Tony and Jane had both built him shortly after Jane and Thor had visited Asgard. Thor didn't completely understand how it worked - Asgard's technology and understanding of innovation was much different than that of Migard - but Tony and Jane managed to create a phone line between Asgard and Midgard. Thor could call his mother whenever he wanted and could avoid his father's phone calls whenever it was at all possible.

Jane's favorite present was a book that Loki stole out of the Asgardian library for her. It was a book that Odin had deemed 'dangerous' for any resident of Midgard to read. Jane had protested the decision to no avail. Loki, always eager to defy Odin, had swiped it the moment he heard Jane complaining.

Bruce's favorite present was yet another book that Loki managed to swipe from Odin's library. It wasn't a comprehensive outline of Asgard's scientific advances like Jane's, but it was a book of medical advances that could hold the key for Bruce's recovery from his gamma dilemma.

Maria's favorite present was, oddly enough, from Fury. He denied it and claimed that the gift had appeared on its own, but everyone knew better. He had gotten her a security clearance pass for all levels of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a lengthy contract that essentially promoted her to the co-director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He begrudgingly admitted that he couldn't keep the agency operational without her.

Sam's favorite present was from Bruce. Bruce had spent a number of hours in the lab working to modify the mechanical wings that Bucky had accidentally broken during a training exercise. Sam was so excited that he put the wings on and jumped right through the living room window. Tony informed Elizabeth that she and Sam would have to pay for the broken window before they moved out. Pepper assured Elizabeth that Tony wouldn't actually make them pay a cent.

Rhodey's favorite present was from Tony. It was an iron man suit almost exactly like Tony's, minus the paint job and a few minor adjustments that Tony felt he had the right to monopolize. Rhodey promised to use it for limited military operations.

Peggy's favorite present was sort of a joint present for her and Natasha; it was a compilation of the absolute dumbest things that Steve had done over the years. Bucky authored it himself. Peggy strongly considered getting it published or perhaps turned into a "don't try this at home" documentary.

Coulson's favorite present was from Steve. It was a shield just like Steve's old one. Steve paired it with a smile and an offer to join Coulson on his next mission; Fury had complained about Coulson requesting to join Steve on a mission for some time now.

Fury's favorite present was perhaps the most creative of all. It was from all of the Avengers, Astrid included. It was a certificate that could be redeemed for an entire hour's worth of silence. Tony swore he saw a tear appear in Fury's eye when he received it.

Tony's favorite present was a notebook of the special graph paper that he swore up and down had different dimensions than 'regular' graph paper, whatever that meant. Pepper found it while sealing up a contract with one of Tony's clients in France.

Pepper's favorite present was an engagement ring from Tony. Everyone had gawked at the ring sitting in Pepper's shaking hands. When she finally choked out a "yes," everyone immediately gathered in the middle of the room for an impromptu group hug. Tony, Fury, and Loki tried to squirm out of it but found that despite their best efforts, they were stuck until the hug dissolved on its own accord.

* * *

The rest of Christmas day passed fairly peacefully for the Avengers and their friends. Everyone played with their new presents, baked cookies, curled up in front of the TV and watched crappy Christmas movies from the 70's, and sang cheesy Elvis versions of Christmas songs. For one unusual and extraordinarily soothing evening, they relaxed and enjoyed themselves.

Steve, Coulson, and Bucky watched A Miser Brothers' Christmas (Steve insisted that it wasn't Christmas without it) and sang along to every song in their own off-key voices, Clint and Darcy tried to make eggnog in the spirit of Christmas but quickly decided that it was gross and spiked the hot chocolate instead, Natasha and Peggy took turns showing Astrid how to use the tiny toy dagger that Loki had given her, Jane and Bruce sat in a corner and compared information from their forbidden books, Thor and Sam snuck into the kitchen to eat the cookies that Steve and Natasha had made earlier in the evening while they weren't looking, Rhodey and Tony wandered down to the garage and played with their iron man suits, and Loki and Fury sat on the other end of the couch, surrounded by cats and pretending to hate every minute of the day. Everyone knew that they were just waiting until no one was watching to truly enjoy themselves.

For one moment in time, things were comfortable. They were not the world's greatest heroes; they were just a family enjoying their Christmas day in their own way.

It wouldn't last, of course. The very next day there would be a man of questionable sanity running around Chicago trying to steal as many dalmatians as he could, but the Avengers didn't know about that yet. They didn't need to know about that yet. For now, they were able to enjoy their evening of peace. They were a team, they were together, and they were happy. That was that.

**The End**

* * *

**Okie dokie, this is the end. Our little Avengers are all grown up and saving the world together. Of course, I think there are a little bit more people in the team than in the actual movies, but the more the merrier, right? Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. ~**


End file.
